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

followers of Galen and of Avicenna. The latter would very gladly avail themselves of our medicaments and arcana to repel chronic diseases, which otherwise, using the method of Galen, would be incurable— they would be glad, I say, to use them if they were able to find a short, sure, and easy method of preparing and administering the same, without renouncing the error of the heathen and false Christians, and providing also they could ascribe the honour, fame, and riches which they thence would obtain to the writings of Galen only and to themselves, out of envy ignoring my name and glorious achievements, but claiming the same for their own writings, keeping secret the fact that the whole art proceeds from me. For they themselves, being old doctors, do not wish to appear as if, at their advanced age, they were reduced to be disciples of an unpolished Swiss and younger apostle, and to make public profession of this circumstance, seeing that all detest him for subverting their principles. On account of this, their laziness, ambition, envy, and hatred, as also ingratitude, I have taught and philosophised in my Archidoxies, and in my other books, in the aforesaid manner, as has pleased me, which I will justify before God and my conscience at the last day, in order that those who desire to arrive at the fundamental principle of my Archidoxies, may publicly call themselves Theophrastics, acknowledge me as their monarch, follow me in their labours, frequent my school, and, vice versa, discard their old fathers.

But although they may chance to secretly obtain some process from a miserable and simple rustic, or from elsewhere, they will not, however, understand the arcana of administering my medicaments, and will thence derive more shame than honour. Wherefore, although it has been shewn to them by Anicula, that the young of swallows, their cranium, and glue of the oak, are a sure remedy for the falling sickness, which is the case, yet even by this you will not effect a cure. Whence is this, and what is the cause ? It is for this reason, namely, that you do not understand the mode of administering them and the great Ilech, nor will you learn from Galen unless you shall have frequented my school and learned philosophy according to Christ and not after Mammon.

an entrance for all is left open to the sacred and more secret penetralia of the divine chemical art. It is, however, by no means to be thought that anyone who has only slightly occupied himself with the school of Vulcan, who has seen nothing of importance, save obscurely, in this most noble art, or has tasted of its fruits for the first time, should fancy that the things herein contained are for his use, or should deceive himself with a false opinion, persuading himself with excessive credulity that they are intended for him. Let him not apply himself to putting in practice the prescribed formulas of the recipes, unless he wishes to be wise too late, like the Phrygians. No one, indeed, should suppose that food is here set before him which is made all ready for his palate ; he who would obtain the kernel must first crack the nut, and then at length he will taste the sweetest fruits of chemistry. Not a raw recruit but a veteran soldier, not one slightly tinged but he who is completely permeated with chemical undertakings, not soiled by scholastic dust but by the smoke of coals and cinders, not accustomed to arguments which savour more of vain subtlety than of real usefulne.ss, but acquainted with true and sound philosopby — those, in a word, who are most skilled in chemical practice— let such gird themselves to the execution of these matters.

But let the profane crowd retire as far as possible. If any one doubt that this is the genuine production of the author, the peculiar style and mode of writing affected by Theophrastus should remove his difficulty, while the promises made in the preceding books and here fulfilled should place the matter beyond question. Nor let anyone be surprised that the author declared he would keep the tenth book locked up in his heart, or, to use his own expression, he would retain it in his occiput, whereas the prayers of his friends persuaded him to change his mind. Do you, therefore, gentle reader, being assured by this lawful witness of Theophrastus, enjoy the labour and work of so great a man, and accept with grateful mind our zeal in acquiring and publishing the treatises of our great doctor, — F. B.

Since, therefore, the glue of the oak does not fulfil your expectations, you imagine that it is too weak by itself, wherefore you correct it with other herbs, and make a great composition of sixty or more ingredients, which you digest and purge of dross. You do not, however, expel the disease even by this means, since you do not understand either simples or compounds, nor yet the method of administering them. Had such persons, indeed, accepted my doctrine in a grateful manner, and had they cast out of doors the red bonnet, or fool's cap, received from Galen, and at the same time submitted themselves to my discipline, I would have put on them a better cap, that of Fortunatus himself, wherein is concealed more art than in all other writings. So, in the presence of none would they need to doff it, but, just as Fortunatus cured the king's daughter, might they cure chronic diseases. But they are unworthy of better things, and are to be blamed for their mischief, since they are completely ignorant of the great secrets or the mysteries of the sanctuary of Nature, and as much concerning the celestial treasure, which, in these last days of grace, has been freely revealed to me from on high, which, indeed, make a true Adam and paradoxic physician, according to the days of Enoch, in the intellects of a new generation. But these ignorant persons boastfully refuse it. Wherefore, I pity them not, but leave them in their own ignorance.

There is no doubt, that in that very great multitude of men, mentioned in the fourth book of Esdras, the Lord God will reserve for Himself a small number of certain elect persons, who will desire faithfully to pursue my Theophrastic doctrine, to love the truth, and help their neighbours in their destitution and diseases, out of a true and unfeigned Christian love, not for the sake of filthy lucre or ambition, but for pure love of God ; and also that out of Nature's light the marvels of God may manifestly appear. At the same time, all are not born under such a constellation as to be able to perceive the sense of our books, however diligently they study, without divine aid. It is on account, therefore, of their sincere intention and love, and that they may understand our excellent writings and arcana of medicines, and may arrive at a blessed end ; and also, lest the most precious secret of Nature, divinely revealed to me should altogether be buried with me ; that we shall write this book, therein shewing in full light the principle of our Archidoxies and universals, and shall teach the preparation of singular arcana, the quintessence, prime entities, and magisteries.

But, lest this clear light itself should reach the ungrateful and unworthy, I exhort all who have a supply of this book, I bind you by the very great sacrament and oath which you have given to God in baptism, that you shall hide all these things secretly and as the noblest treasure of Nature, lest you admit any unworthy person. Do you rather venerate that treasure as a most blessed talent, and help your neighbour in adversity. May God grant benediction and favour, that whosoever partakes thereof may rightly use it ! G2

OF Theophrastus. Comprised in Ten Separate Chapters.

Concerning the Separations of the Elements. IN all things four elements are comming-led one with the other, but in each thing one of these four is perfect and fixed. That is the predestinated element in which dwells the quintessence, the virtue, and the quality ; but the other elements are imperfect, and each an element only, in which is no more virtue than in any other single element. These are all, as it were, the abode of the true, fixed, and perfect element ; whence, also, they are called qualified things. Now, the fact is that some persons think the body to be a true element and quality, and that it in some way displays the virtue of a true element. This is because the body, like the three imperfect elements, is tinged and qualified, each according to its own nature, by the fixed, perfect, and predestinated element, as by its indwelling inhabitant. For example, in some bodies the element of water predominates, in others that of fire excels, in some earth, and in others, again, air. If, then, the predestinated element has to be separated, it is necessary that the house be broken up ; and this breaking up or dissolution of the house is brought about in divers ways, as is clearly said in my Metamorphosis concerning the death of things. If the house is dissolved by strong waters, by calcinations, and the like, care must be taken that what is dissolved from that which is fixed must be separated by common distillations.

For then the body of the quintessence passes over like phlegm, but the fixed element remains at the bottom. But since we are little concerned about the house or the dwelling, it is necessary to find it in a fixed, predestinated element, and thence to extract it after the mode of a quintessence, so that that fixed element may be dissolved by other stronger artifices than calcinations, sublimations, and so on, and the pure separated from the impure. The pure is the quintessence ; but the impure is the superfluous tartar, which is mixed up with every generation, concerning which see the book on Tartareous Diseases.

But since my theory is given at length in other books of Archidoxies, of Metamorphosis, and the Generations of the Paramirum, I am on that account unwilling to cause any weariness, but will briefly point out the practical method. Prepare a metal according to the process in the book on the Death of Things ; reduce it to a liquid substance according to the method which we have taught in the book on the Separation of the Elements ; separate by continual cohobations and putrefactions the three imperfect elements ; and then the fixed element, of whatever kind it may be, remains at the bottom, and in this way these four elements are correctly separated.

Abstract the volatile portion, which passes over in the separation of the elements, several times from that which is fixed, so that the quintessence, which partly was raised with the phlegm, may be again conjoined. Take the fixed element that remained after the separation of the three imperfect elements, of whatsoever sort it may be, then dissolve it in its proper water, each accordto its nature, as we have said in the Archidoxies concerning the Quintessence. Keep it in the highest state of putrefaction, distil it by cohobation, and the rest by descent. Putrefy still a little, distil, and join all. Then distil it in a Balneum Maries, even to oiliness. Then break it up with the subtle spirit of wine by boiling ; the impure will sink to the bottom and the pure will float on the surface. Separate this by means of a tritorium, and, in order that it may at the same time lose the nature of the aqua fortis, pour on a greater quantity of the spirit of wine, which frequently abstract until the quintessence turns out sweet. Lastly, wash it in common cold water. In the same way, it must be understood of marchasites, stones, resins, herbs, flesh, watery and fixed substances, that first of all, according to the teaching of the book on Separations, the three imperfect elements shall be separated ; and that afterwards measures shall be taken with the fixed element according to the instruction given in the book on the Quintessence.

By eating or corroding water, understand acetum mixed with spirit of wine, and that which being frequently abstracted from the spirit of salt nitre becomes acetum. In this the fixed elements of marchasites should be dissolved, purified, and elevated by means of an alembic ; then, lastly, corrupted by spirit of wine, so that the impure may sink to the bottom, and separate itself from the pure. With regard to the essence of gems, by radicated acetum, understand that you have a sharp acetum corrected with bricks, a sufficient number of times from the tartarised matrix of acetum. Dissolve therein the gems, which have been first calcined by sulphur, putrefy, and then separate the pure from the impure by breaking them up with the spirit of wine. From fruits, herbs, and roots the essence is easily perfected, so that you dissolve the imperfect elements by the highest secret putrefaction of extreme heat. Then putrefy in dung, drive out by descent all that can go out, and from thence abstract the injurious imperfect body of the moisture by distillation in a bath. Thereupon there will remain at the bottom the predestinated element. Separate this from the impure residuum by corruption with its proper spirit, or with spirit of wine. Abstract this, and you will have the pure quintessence.

The extraction of the quintessence from salts (for example, vitriol, common salt, salt nitre, antimony, etc.) is accomplished in this way : cohobate them frequently with their own proper liquid, or with water, putrefy with phlegm, and abstract the body from thence after the manner of phlegm, even to the fixed spirit. This dissolve in water, or its own proper liquid, and separate in heat with spirit of wine, the pure from the impure.

Concerning Magisteries. Magisteries are deservedly to be called mysteries, on account of the great tinctures which they display in an appropriate body, such as acetum or wine ; and as we mention elsewhere, so here also we teach that the one thing to be considered is with reference to the agreements which are adapted to the extraction of magisteries. For if you take distilled acetum you must not tinge water but wine into acetum if, indeed, the tincture or the acetum was made from wine. If you have well and rightly understood the magistery of acetum, you will also sufficiently understand the book of Magisteries. In the magistery of acetum it is to be understood that from corrupted wine, by a fermentation which is naturally adapted to it — for example, by tartar — you make, first of all, the tincture, that is, the acetuin. Then with a small quantity of this same acetum, you shall thoroughly tinge a large body of wine, previously corrupted and putrefied, in a short time, into the best acetum. If, therefore, you purpose to convert metals into a magistery, and altogether to tinge the whole body into an essence, you must take a principal and an open metal to which all the others in Nature are cognate. That you must corrupt in its own matrix which has been placed in water, and is called the Mother of all Metals, purge it from its superfluous elements and reduce it to its primal liquid entity, that is, the sharpest metallic acetum.

As often as all the metals are digested therein, they are of necessity transmuted by it into acetum, that is to say, into a quintessence. But as wine must be already in some way previously corrupted, if, indeed, good acetum is to be quickly prepared from it, so, in like manner, metallic bodies, too, must be previously corrupted, or putrefied and mortified, as is said in the Metamorphosis concerning the Death of Things ; and then they are truly called potable.

In this manner, also, the magisteries of marchasites are to be prepared, in which almost more virtue is found than in metals, just as the other magisteries are prepared ; and by our dissolving water is to be understood the water of salt. But the magistery from gems is that you first of all calcine them with sulphur for four hours, then reverberate them, and afterwards burn them with nitre. Then boil them with simple water eight hours, filter, coagulate, and extract them with spirit of wine. The magistery from gums and resins, for example, from turpentine and amber, is made after the following manner : First boil in spirit of wine, then corrupt in fresh spirit of wine mixed with a dissolving water, of salt, for instance, then distil from it. The magistery of herbs, in like manner, as also of all spices and fruits, is thus accomplished. First of all, let them be fermented like must. Then extract the spirit, as from the dregs of wine. In that spirit digest the putrefied herb, frequently renewing it with fresh herbs until the spirit shall have become quadrupled in quantity. But since frequent mention is made in our Archidoxies of First Entities, and since the chief foundation is hidden in them, we will here briefly add the preparation of our water of circulated salt, which is here required, but was omitted.

The Preparation of Circulated Salt. In our other books we have sufficiently shewn and made clear that the true element is water, or the sea, as if the true mother of all metals, and from its primal essence it received the sperm of the three principles, of which none before me has made any mention, only they built up their principles from sulphur and mercury, neglecting all mention of the third principle, that is to say, of salt which lies in the sea. But, having been taught by experience, I have in my other books touched upon the fact that the first entity or quintessence of the element of water is the centre of metals and minerals; and I have elsewhere added that every fruit must die in that wherein is its life, so that it may afterwards acquire a new and better life, and thus by laying aside the old body be brought back to the first entity. Wherefore we will add here the extraction of the centre of the water, in which metals ought to lose their body. Take first the true element of water, or, in place of it, some other salt not yet boiled to dryness, or even purified salt of a gem. Pour two parts of water mixed with a little radish juice ; putrefy in an accurate digestion, the longer the better. Afterwards let it congeal ; putrefy again for a month, and then distil by a retort.

Urge the residuum with a strong fire, so that it may melt. Reverberate it in a retort over a continuous fire. Dissolve it on marble. Pour upon it the water that flows from it, and putrefy it again. Distil it once more even to oiliness ; mix it with spirit of wine, and the impure will fall to the bottom, which separate, but the pure will be crystallised in the cold. Pour the distilled matter on it again, and cohobate until a fixed oil remains in the bottom, and nothing sweet afterwards passes over. Digest for a month ; and then distil until the arcanum of the salt passes over through the alembic. Do not grudge this protracted labour, for this is the third part

of all the arcana which are hidden in metals and minerals, and without it nothing fruitful, nothing perfect, can be brought about. But although there are several ways for extracting the first entity of salt, this is the most useful and expeditious ; and after this is that other way which we have mentioned as the elixir of salt, namely, that fresh salt being mixed with dissolving water, which is the distilled spirit of salt, should be putrefied and distilled until the whole substance of the salt shall be dissolved and reduced to a perpetual oiliness, the body being removed thence as phlegm. In this way it is taught that the arcanum or magistery of vitriol and tartar, and of all other salts, is to be prepared.

Concerning First Entities ; and primarily concerning the Extraction OF the Quintessence or First Entity of Common Mercury. If the common mercury is to be reduced into its first liquid entity, then it must be previously mortified and brought out from its own proper form. That is done by various sublimations with vitriol and common salt, so that at last it becomes like fixed crystal. Then dissolve it in its own matrix, that is to say, in the first entity of salt. Putrefy for a month ; corrupt with fresh arcanum of salt, that the impure part of it may be precipitated to the bottom, but the pure turned into crystals. Sublimate the stones in a closed reverberatory ; when it is sublimated, always invert it until it grows to redness. Extract this sublimate with spirit of wine rectified to the highest point. Separate the spirit of wine, dissolve what remains upon marble, and digest it for a month. Pour on fresh spirit of wine, digest for a time, and distil it. Then the arcanum of the first entity of mercury will pass over in a liquid substance, which is called by the philosophers a very sharp metallic acetum ; and in our Archidoxies the Greater Circulatum. And the same is to be understood concerning antimony, gems, and herbs.

What we say concerning arcana is to be thus received : that they are nothing else than a graduated quintessence or first entity. And under the first arcanum of the primal matter, we wish to be understood the first material or first essence of the limbus of man. Also we understand the first matter of the mercury of salt, for that is most closely conformed. Wherefore, according to the process of the first entity, you will reduce all to a liquid substance, then join it again with a monarchy, as if with the living unreduced body of that thing, and so promote it for distillation. What we think concerning the arcanum of the Stone shall be made clear in the succeeding practice. But by the arcanum of the Mcrctirtus Vita we in- tend a living fire, so that the mercury of common life shall be essentialised with the quintessence of salt and be vitalised with the first ens of antimony, as if by a celestial life. But the arcanum of the tincture unfolds itself, wherefore we omit it here.

Concerning the Arcanum of the Stone, or of the Heaven of What we have in one place and another theoretically advanced concerning the arcanum of the stone we here pass over ; and I say that this arcanum must not be sought in rust, which many have wrongly named "flowers," but in the mercury of antimony. And this mercury of antimony, when it is brought to its perfection, is none other than the heaven of the metals, because its virtue is always vital, and nothing else than a perfect, pure quintessence. Therefore, even in the Deluge no virtue or efficacy was taken away from it ; for the heaven, as though it were life itself, can be destroyed by no lesser thing. Its preparation I briefly subjoin here : — Take antimony, purge it from dross and realgar, in an iron vessel, until the coagulated mercury of the antimony appears white and beautiful. And although it is an element of mercury, and has in itself a true, hidden life, yet all these things are potentially but not actively present. If, however, you wish to bring it down to activity, it is necessary that you excite that life with what is like itself, such as living fire or metallic acetum, with which fire many philosophers have proceeded in diff"erent ways. Since, however, they agreed fundamentally, they all arrived at the destined end. One, with much toil, extracted a quintessence out of the coagulated mercury, .

and led down the mercury of the antimony therewith into activity. Others have discerned that a uniform essence exists in diiferent mineral substances, as, for example, in fixed sulphur of vitriol, in magnetic stone, and thence extracted the same quintessence, and with that same have ripened their mercury or heaven, or have brought it into activity. And since they extracted their quintessence from a stony material, on that account they called that magistery a stone ; and, indeed, their opinion is right. Nevertheless, that fire, or corporal life, is found much more perfectly and sublimely in common mercury, which is testified plainly by its flowing, namely, that there is hidden in it a consummate fire and a celestial life. Whoever, therefore, desires to bring his metallic heaven to the highest grade, and to lead it to activity, ought first of all to extract out of the corporal life (the common mercury) the first liquid entity (as if celestial fire), the quintessence of the sun and a very sharp metallic acetum, by solution with its mother, that is, to mix it with the arcanum of salt, and with the stomach of Anthion, that is, with the spirit of vitriol, and he should dissolve therein the coagulated mercury of antimony, should digest it, and, lastly, reduce it to crystals, that it may be like a yellowish crystal, concerning which we have made mention in our manual.

Concerning the Arcanum of the Mercurius Vxtm. Just as out of herbs, as the vine, a temperate essence is extracted, by which from every kind of herb or root their own essence may be drawn, even so that the mercury of wine does not shew its own peculiar nature, but the nature of that with which it is essentialised, in the same way is it with metals and minerals, for a like mercurius or spirit is extracted from the open and middle metal (mercurius), if the essence be extracted out of the perfect metals with that same spirit. Then, afterwards, that essentialised mercury is joined to the celestial balsam of the quintessence in a closed reverberatory, by means whereof it acquires life, and is on that account called the Mercurius Vitce. The virtues whereof seem to us admirable, and must be kept silent and occult by us, lest they should be despised.

Concerning the Great Composition, being the chief of our secrets in medicine. In our Paramirical writings it is made sufficiently clear, that is to say, so far as it is necessary for a philosopher or a physician, if it be necessary that the whole human body, not only in its corporeal and earthly mass, but in its celestial balsamic part, should be preserved from and healed of all heavenly and earthly diseases — it is made clear, we say, that in the work of healing such a composition should be made as does not consist of a number of ingredients. For example, if any one should think that by pouring together water and wine a real mixture ensues, this is false, because one part can be separated from the other without injury to either, which is not the case in our great composition. For here is made a uniform and concordant mixture, so that two things, distinct in nature and properties, are united, and neither can be separated from the other without injury on account of their remarkable agreement, as occurs also in the male and female semen. If, therefore, such a composition is to be prepared conformable in its condition to man through the due proportion of heavenly and earthly things, it is fitting to consider the name of the microcosm and that man is a little world. Wherefore if he is to be cured universally of all diseases, that must necessarily be done by his like.

Concerning which Hermes Trismegistus said that it was necessary for him who intends to make this composition to create a new world ; and as God created the heaven and the earth, so also the physician must form, separate, and prepare a medicinal world. And in order that he might point out to his disciples with sufficient fidelity from what thing or material this composition should be made, and how, also, the concordances of heavenly virtues are discovered by us in the Valley of the Shadows, he wisely and truly adds, a little after, that what is beneath is as that which is above,

and that the inferior and the superior stand related to one another as man and wife ; and for the better understanding hereof he teaches that the heaven of itself agrees with the element of water, because it had its first spermatic matter in the water, and that the element of earth, coagulated and changed from its spirituality into corporeality and earthiness, is like the planets and the other stars, which also obtained their spermatic matter by their origin in heaven, and thence by separation passed over or were changed from a heavenly pellucid nature into a dense coagulated body. In the primal creation, things above and things below, the upper and lower heaven, or water, the upper coagulated nature, or stars, and the lower terrestrial nature, were all mixed together and made one thing. But God separated the subtle from the dense, so that out of one water two were produced. The upper water was subtle, and to be considered as of the masculine sex, compared with the lower, denser, feminine water. But as God divided and separated still further the upper water, so that the subtle, airy part should be appointed for the stars, that thus the celestial bodies or stars may stand related to heaven as sons to a father, so, by parity of reasoning, has God appointed, together with this which is above, a separation also in the denser bodies, that is to say, in the female waters in the Valley of Shadows, and divided them into two parts.

The seventh, clearer part He called water, and the other six dried parts, or coagulated portion. He called earth, which comprises in itself all the special fruits and planets which had their prime origin in water as their heaven ; as metals, minerals, and gems, which, in respect of the water, are reckoned as daughters in respect of a mother. So the superior heaven has a nature and properties like its own in its feminine nature, that is to say, in the inferior heaven or water ; and the superior terrestrial bodies, or stars, like the sons of a father-^that is, heaven — have a similar agreement with and relation to their sisters, the earthly bodies. And just as by close relationship the higher heavenly bodies or stars are joined to their father, the heaven, so too, by a like and equal relationship, the lower earthly minerals and metals are connected with their heaven, the water, as with a mother. Whence the truth of the sentiment of Hermes is evident, which we commend to our sons of the doctrine in these words : that indeed the whole microcosm, so far as relates to the comprehensible mass, and to the living, moving, corporeal, generating spirit, ought to be collected and composed of these lower elements and dark waters which are their noblest essences. But as to the mental arcana, wherein consists the sound mind in a sound body, these should be attracted from the superior, heavenly waters, and their astral influences spiritually, in a mental manner, through the mind of the image of the Gamahela ;

or, if these are not pleasing to us, they should be declined, as in our books on A Long Life we point out these things at length and with clearness. Since, both in other places and especially in the Paramira, we have included the theory of this grand composition, we pause at these words and add the practical method, namely, how the inferior world or heaven should be united

and conjoined with its earth, or the sun with its heaven. But because we have premised already the preparation of the heaven and have taught it under the arcanum of the stone, we omit it here. And since of itself alone, like the male semen, it can bring no advantage in the body of man, but only restores the celestial parts, that is to say, the radical moisture, or balsam of life, therefore it ought to be joined to its terrestrial corporeal mass, and be brought into concord therewith, that so also the carnal element in man may be refreshed and restored, and not only one member, but the whole body, be restored to soundness. Therefore let a corporeal mass be taken, which in nature is equal to the sun above, and embraces in itself the properties of all the stars, since it is impossible for all the subterranean stars and the coagulated bodies to be included together in the number of the »ingredients. This coagulated essence of heaven, that is, the sun, in its essence and temperate element, is so elevated and graduated that it also fixes with itself its own habitation, that is, the superfluous elements, that it cannot be destroyed by any element, and the inhabitant or corporal balsam hidden in it is able to remain eternal. If, therefore, as was before said, the whole microcosm is to be healed, then the corporeal coagulated balsam should be united with the spiritual celestial balsam and the discord between the elements of the sun should be reconciled, so that the superfluous elements may be separated from the fixed predestinated element and altogether die out and leave the fixed element, as their inhabitant, alone. If this dead body of the sun be afterwards cleansed from superfluities and brought into a volatile spiritual nature, then is perfected the true, sublimated, and resolved mercury of the sun, not that horizontal which many try to prepare with common mercury and sal ammoniac.

Concerning the Corporal Balsam or Mercury of the Sun. In order that you may excite discord among the elements of the sun, or the habitation of gold, you must draw out Sol in a strong solution, by means of the phlegmatic fire, or quintessence of tartar, into its proper heat. By this method the element of air in Sol is very greatly increased, and by the air approaching the fixed element of the sun, as being its proper fire, it is so graduated that it can conquer and destroy the habitation of the other three. Putrefy this destruction with the quintessence of tartar and with struthio. Convert it by a proper sublimation into the matter of mercury ; and then the fixed mercurial element of Sol will remain alone without any habitation. But since this is still mixed with its superfluous tartar, therefore this must be removed from it. Dissolve it, then, in the circulated water of salt, corrupt it, and the tartar will be precipitated. Sublime the pure in a closed reverbatory of Athanor, dissolve it upon marble, and putrefy it. Thus is the mercury sublimated, graduated, and dissolved into the first matter of Sol, and is prepared in the highest degree.

Concerning the Composition of the Spiritual Balsam, and of the Balsam of the Coagulated Body. As is remarked in the Manual, this composition is made in the philosophers' egg. And so we put an end to this great work, in the name of God, to His praise and glory. Here end the Ten Books of the Archidoxies.

READER. God, indeed, permitted the true spirit of Medicine to be brought into operation by Machaon, Podalirius, Hippocrates, and others, so that the true medicine, which shines forth from the clouds (where it cannot be fully and plainly known), should come forth into the light of day, and be manifested to mankind. By that same operation, too. He placed His prohibition on the spirit of darkness, so that it should not altogether overwhelm and extinguish the light of Nature, and that the mighty gifts of God, which lie concealed in Arcana, Quintessences, Magisteries, and Elixirs, should not be altogether unknown. God, therefore, has ordained certain means whereby, moreover, through the ministration of good spirits, research into such arcana and mysteries should be implanted in man, just as certain men have received angelic natures from that heaven which is familiarly acquainted with the angels. Such men have been able afterwards, as being endowed with a perfect intelligence of Nature, to search into Nature and her daily course more profoundly than other people, to compare the pure with the impure, to separate one from the other, and to adapt and modify what is pure in a manner that seems impossible to others. These, as being true and natural physicians, know how to supplement Nature, and by their arts to biing her to perfection. It must be, therefore, that all imperfect and diabolical operations give way before them, as a lie always gives way to what is true and perfect. We must, I assert, speak the plain truth if we would arrive at any happy result. And if it be lawful to grasp the truth by any means, no man ought to be ashamed to seek it in any quarter.

Let none, then, take it in bad part of me, that I myself have loved this truth and pursued it. I was forced to seek it, for it did not seek me. If a man wants to see a foreign city it is no good for him to stay at home with his head on his pillow. He must not roast pears at the fire, for in that way he will never become a doctor. No one will ever get to be a renowned cosmographer by sitting at table. No chiromancist ever became so in his chamber, or geomancist in his cell. So neither can we arrive at the true medicine save by investigation. God makes the true physician, but not without pains on man's own part. He says : " Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands, and it shall be well with thee." Since, therefore, seeing goes before truth, and the things which are perceived by sight gladden or terrify the heart, I shall not esteem it toilsome, or deem it beneath my dignity, to travel about and join myself to such men as fools despise, in order that I may discover what lies hid in the limbo of earth, and that I may fulfil the duty of a true physician, by exhibiting Medicine according to the ordinance of God and for my neighbour's good ; and that it may not do more harm than good. An easy-going man will not take this trouble.

Let him who will, then, sit in his cushioned chair. I like to travel about, to see and examine whatever God and the opportunity allow. For the sake of sincere readers, however, who desire to learn, and love the light of Nature, I have written the present treatise in order that they may know the foundation of my true medicine, pass by the absurdities of pseudophysicians, and be able, in some degree, at least, take my part against them. For those distinguished fellows, of course, know all these things beforehand, and the asinine doctor has them all in his wallet, only he is never able to get at them. For a man must be a good alchemist who wants to understand this treatise, one who is not afraid of the coals, and whom daily smoke does not disgust.* Let those who will take pleasure in these matters, I force myself upon nobody. This alone, I say, the thing will not prove infructuous, however much my enemies, the sham doctors, blame and accuse me.

* I praise alchemy, which compounds secret medicines, whereby all hopeless maladies are cured. They who are ignorant of this deserve neither to be called chemists nor physicians. For these remedies lie either in the power of the alchemists or in that of the physicians. It they reside with the latter, the former are ignorant of them. If with the former, the latter have not learnt them. How, therefore, shall those men deserve any praise ? I, for my part, have rather judged that such a man shall be highly extolled who is able to bring Nature to such a point that she will lend help, that is, who shall know how after the extraction of the health-giving parts what is useless is to be rejected ; who is also acquainted with the efficacy, for he must see that it is impossible that the preparation and the science— in other words, the chemia and the medicine — can be separated from one another, because should anyone attempt to separate them he will introduce more obscurities into medicine, and the result will be absolute folly. By this distinction all the fundamental principles of medicine will be overthrown. I do not think I need labour very hard in order that you may recognise the certainty of my reasons. I give you this one piece of advice : Have regard to the effect of quack remedies. They first destroy wounds which are already aggravated by a succession of processes, miserably torture the patients, and having after all accomplished no good, but removed all chance of recovery, they do the unfortunate to death.

... I who am an iatro-chemist, that is, one who knows both chemistry and medicine, am in virtue hereof in a position to point out errors and to profitably reject all pestiferous remedies, relegating them to their own place. My ardent desires and ready will to be of use prompt me to this. - Chirurgia Magua^ Pars. I., Tract I., c. 13.

IN order that the Philosophers' Stone, which, for sufficient reasons, we call a perpetual or perfect balsam, may be made by means of Vulcan, it must first of all be known and considered in what way that Stone may be placed materially before our eyes, and become visible and cognisable by the other senses ; and, in like manner, how its fire may be made to come forth and to be recognised. In order, then, that this may be the more clearly set before us, we will take the illustration of common fire, that is to say, we will inquire in what manner its force shews itself and becomes visible ; and this is as follows : — First of all, by means of Vulcan, the fire is smitten out of the flint. Now this fire can effect nothing unless it meets with some substance that is congenial to it, and on which it is capable of acting, such as wood, resins, oil, or some other like substance, which, by its nature, readily burns. When, therefore, the fire meets with some such object it goes on forthwith to operate, unless it be extinguished or hindered by something of a contrary nature to itself, or unless the material wherein it should multiply itself be deficient. For if wood or some similar substance be applied, its violence becomes stronger, and operates in the same way until no more fuel is applied. Now, then, as the fire shews its effects in the wood, so is the same thing produced with the Philosophers' Stone, or the Perpetual Balsam acting on the human body.

If that Stone be made out of proper material and on a philosophical principle by a careful physician, and due consideration be given to all the surroundings of the man when it is exhibited to him, then it renovates and restores the vital organs just as though logs were put on a fire, which revive the almost extinguished heat and are the cause of a brilliant and clear flame.

Hence it is clear that much depends on the material of this balsam, since it ought to have a special adaptation to the body of the man, and should so exercise its virtue that the human body should be safe from all the accidents which might occur to it from such matter. Wherefore, not only much depends on the preparation of the Stone or Balsam, but it is of much greater importance, that before all things, the true matter adapted for it should be known, and then that it should be properly prepared, and above all that it should be soberly and prudently used ; so that such a medicine should have power to purge away all impurities of the blood and induce soundness in place of disease. On that account, it becomes the true and honest physician to have good knowledge, and not to regard ambition and pomp, nor to order dubious or contrary things, nor to trust too much to the apothecary, but to make himself well acquainted with the disease and with the sufferer ; otherwise you will be constantly treated wrongly, and the only result will be that the sick man is deceived and defrauded, solely by the pride and ignorance of the unfit and unqualified practitioner. For what else is it but a deliberate fraud, when a man asks money and fees for that about which he knows nothing, and tries to lord it, to his own infamy ;

since many men think nothing of money if they can only get good advice. If this is not given, and they lose both their bodily health and their money, still it is considered quite laudable to demand a fee. Let him who will trust them. I, for my part, would provide marks for such a doctor in quite a different way. It is quite evident that of such doctors, who in their own conceit are most highly learned, there is not a tenth part who possess an adequate knowledge of simples ; much less of what they order to be done, or how the medicine is compounded by the apothecary. Hence it often happens that such a doctor orders some kind of simple to be taken, which he himself does not know, and the apothecary knows still less, and has not got in his store. Yet this medicine is called perfect, and is swallowed as such by the sick man, often at a high price. The result the sick man soon feels. Although it furthers his recovery in no way, still it is profitable to the doctor and the apothecary for filling their purses. If the doctor or the apothecary suffered from the same disease, they would not take the same remedy. Hence it can be well understood how nefarious their conduct is, and how highly necessary is it that they should approach the subject in a diflferent way, should amend their errors, and follow a better course of practice. Still I fear that old dogs are very difficult to tame.

But to return to my subject, from which zeal for the suffering and solitary patients has led me astray. In order to do it justice I would say that I do not purpose to romance or to boast about this Philosophers' Stone, but the nature of the case requires that it should be made of the proper material, and that it should be prepared and used with due caution. You must know that many of the ancients in their parabolic writings have sufficiently indicated this material, and described the operation in figurative words, but did not altogether disclose it, so that unqualified persons should abuse it ; and yet they took care that it should not be concealed from their own disciples.* When, however, few • The congeries of chemical philosophy, which has been the subject of frequent reference and citation in the first volume, contains excerpts from the Munnai Concerning the Medicinal Stone of the f'hiiosophers, which offer in some cases considerable variations from the above text. The most important passage is as follows :— Very many of the ancients have with sufficient clearness revealed this matter and its preparation for the ingenious, but still in parabolic and enigmatical words and figures, so that they might drive away the unworthy from so great a mystery at once of Nature and of art. A very few, nevertheless, even of those who are fit for this art, have sought the perpetual balsam of Nature and the perfect Stone, on account of the vast labour and intricate difficulty which meet the investigator at every step. Hence it is that sluggish and slothful dispositions stand aloof from this work. The avaricious, whom the greed

persons followed their meaning, or properly undertook the operation, in course of time their instructions were forgotten, and in their place the nostrums of Galen were introduced. As was the foundation of these nostrums, such was the superstructure, and matters daily became worse. This you see, for mstance, in their herbaries, how they fuss over these, and how the Germans mix up Italy in the matter, when it is quite certain that Germany does not lack those imported herbs, but possesses in itself a full supply of perfect medicine. In order, then, that truth may not give place to a lie, and that the obscurities of Galen, with his accomplices, may not quench and suppress the light of Nature in medicine, it is necessary that I, Theophrastus, in this book, should speak, not as a quack, but as a scientist who is not ashamed of his achievements in medicine, who also, by the grace of God assisting him, has had proof of this matter in many cases which you, O Galenist, would not have dared to visit ! Tell me. Galenic doctor, whence comes your qualification ? Are you not putting the the bridle on the tail of the horse ? Have you ever cured the gout ? Have you dared to attack leprosy ? Have you cured dropsy? I believe you will wisely hold your tongue, and acknowledge that Theophrastus is your master. If, however, you want to learn, learn and note what I here write and say, namely, that the human body does not need your clumsy herbal, especially in chronic or long-standing diseases which you in your ignorance call incurable. Your herbs are too weak for these cases, and by their very nature are impotent to get at the centre of the disease.

You will effect nothing by your pills beyond merely purging the excrements. And even here, on account of their unsuitability, you often expel the good with the bad, and this cannot be done without severe damage to the patient. So, then, these pills must be left off. Furthermore, your draughts do nothing beyond causing nausea in those who swallow them by their foul taste, which irritates the sick person, and by and bye they cause gripings and danger for gold and silver — vile things that they are— has inspired with courage, have persevered most diligently of all in the work, so much so that for it they have neglected their life and substance. But because so much worldly happiness was not intended for them by God, they have wasted their oil and their labour. There is in truth need of the keenest zeal and judgment for this matter, that from various comparisons and similitudes the meaning of authors who write about this art may be detected. In order, therefore, that the more intelligent may cou.prehend up to a certain point, we will bring forward a fitting similitude by which is prefigured the matter of the perpetual balsam, agreeing with a like balsam in the human body for the purpose of restoring and conserving its highest state of health and driving away disease. Take common natural fire for an example. This is invisible to us, wherefore it must be sought in the air where it is latent, and is to be found by the striking together a flint and steel.

Now it does not owe its existence to these, but to the air, and is only retained by some dry object such as firewood. For the dryness immediately takes hold of its heat and that which is like itself, and both operate in the same way in the subject until all the humidity is consumed, and there remains only a dry and ashen body subject to death, being deprived of the fire and food of life. In no other way should philosophers investigate matter wherein the food and fire of life are chiefly present. These should be drawn out by preparations so that they may increase the vitality of human life when it has begun to fail. For as the flame and life of the fire revive the wood all but consumed if there be left only a few bits of coal or sparks of fire, by adding appropriate wood and fuel, so in the human body the perpetual balsam, applied even to the smallest remaining atom of life, rouses this into a flame and into its pristine vigour. But a question arises as to the matter in which this rousing fire remains latent. It is not right, or even safe, to speak clearly and openly about this to everybody. Is not the grace of God sufficient for the children of light, whereby the faculty is given to them of bringing light out of the darkness of shadows, figures, and enigmas?

The sons of darkness are proved in this way, since for them, even from the light itself, nothing can be elicited save the merest shadows. Nature requires a nature like itself, and takes pleasure in it. As iron, too, is attracted by the magnet, .so darkness begets darkness, and light brings forth light. This Stone is hard— who will be able to extract the kernel from it ? What is harder than the stone and steel, except it be the diamond ? Yet this is worn away. But by what artifice the Philosophers' Stone is to be disclosed, so

through their unnatural action. But I quit the subject of your absurd and useless medicaments, since they are in direct opposition to Nature, and never ought to be used. Since, then, those of which I speak are the true medicines (and no such true medicine can be found in Galen, in Rhasis, or in Mesne, which attacks and purges those diseases I named from the very roots, as the fire purifies the spotted skin of the salamander), it necessarily follows that the curative process of Theophrastus differs altogether from the fancies of Galen, since it emanates from the fountain of Nature. Were it not so, Theophrastus would stand disgraced like the others. If, then, we are willing to follow Nature, and to use natural medicine, let us see what substances amongst those used in medical art are most adapted to the human body for keeping it in soundness up to the limit of predestined death by means of their virtue and efficacy. If thought be given to the subject, I doubt not but all must confess that metallic substances have the chief adaptation to the human body, and that the perfect metals, in proportion to their degree of perfection, and especially the radical humour of those metals, can produce the greatest effects on the human body. For man partakes of that salt, sulphur, and mercury which, though hidden, enter for the most part into the composition of metals and metallic substances.

Thus, like is applied to like, and this process is most serviceable to Nature if only it be dexterously applied. This is the great secret in medicine, worthy to be called its very arcanum, What marvel is it, then, if great, unheard of, and unhoped-for cures follow, such as the ignorant believed impossible ? Not to delay longer, I am constrained here to set down what I determined to write in this treatise. I purpose to treat here more clearly than elsewhere of true medicine. First, however, it had to be pointed out how man derived his origin from sulphur, mercury, and salt, regarded as metals. This I have sufficiently indicated in the Paramirum, and it is not necessary to repeat it here.* I will, therefore,

that henceforth we have fire and life enough, we do not see. The eyes of the mind must be opened, and the first consideration must be what medicine is by Nature and art congruous with human life before all others, so that it may be conserved and preserved in health to its predestined end, and also may be safe against all corruptions. Nobody — at least, no true physician— will doubt that the metallic essences, especially those of the perfect bodies, are the most durable and least corruptible of all that Nature produces. If, then, life be the fire and heat of the natural form united to the humidity of its own matter by light, as is clear from Genesis, and the light lives more brightly nowhere than in bodies least liable to corruption, what will prevent the heat of the fire and the radical humour in the metals, each being incorrupt, from rousing in the organs joined to human life this vitality that is well-nigh dormant ? For these are sleeping in metallic bodies alone, and in a state of repose, as a man overcome with sleep lies as if dead, and is only moved by respiration, but not in his body. As the spirit of metals, if it be liberated from its bodily sleep, will perform movements and actions as if its own in any body that is applied to it, none otherwise must we judge of human bodies.

While these are sick the vital spirits in them sleep ; they are not able to breathe truly or freely on account of their corrupt domicile. But when the corruptions of darkness are removed from the body, not by an extraneous physician, but by Nature itself, fortified by medical aid, and with an accession of extraneous life, that is to say, of incorruptible metals, the vital spirits in men exercise their movements freely. It is no wonder, then, if miraculous cures are wrought by Spagyric physicians, otherwise impossible by the vulgar medicine of the Greeks, whence it came about that they considered those diseases incurable which they themselves were unable to drive away with their sleepy and, as it were, dead medicaments. Hence the distinction between the Spagyric and the Greek medicine is clearly seen. The latter sleeps with the sleepers ; the former, watchful and free from all slumber, rouses the dormant faculties of life. But returning to our investigation of the matter, this cannot be noted better than from the errors of those who inquire into this branch of the subject.

•On the Origin of Diseases from the Three Primary Substancf.s.— There are three substances which confer its own special body on everything, that is to say, every body consists of three ingredieiits. The names of these are Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. When the.se three are compounded, then they are called a body ; only shew how the Philosophers' Stone may be recognised, and according to what method it is prepared. Know, then, for a fact, that nothing is so small but that from it anything can be made and can exist without form. For all things are formed, generated, multiplied, and destroyed in their proper agreement, and they shew their origin so that it can be seen what each separate thing was in the beginning, and what it becomes in its ultimate matter, while that which intervenes is a kind of imperfect condition which Nature intermingles in the process of generation. Since, however, these accidents can be separated by the action of Vulcan, so that they shall be rendered inoperative, Nature can, in this instance, be corrected. This is what is done in the Stone. For if you would make it of its proper material, which can be perfectly learnt from the circumstances pointed out, you must remove from it its superfluities, and you must form, multiply, and increase it as a separate thing in its adaptation, which without such adaptation cannot be done. In this instance Nature has left it imperfect, since she has formed, not the Stone, but its materials, which are impeded by accidents, so that it is not able to produce these effects which the Stone, after due prepartion, is able to produce.

Such material, without preparation, is, so far as regards the Stone, a mere fragmentary and imperfect substance, which has in it no harmony whereby alone it could be called perfect, or serve the human body for healing purposes. You have an illustration of this in the microcosm. See a man who is formed by the Mechanical Power only as a man. He is not an entire and perfect work, since he lacks harmony, but is only fragmentary until the woman is created like him; then the work is entire. Each of these is earth, and the two at last make the entire human being, capable of increasing and growing,

and nothing is added to, or coheres with, them save and except the vital principle. Thus, if you take any body in your hands, then you have invisibly three substances under one form. We have now to discuss concerning these three. For these three substances exist under one form, and they give and produce all health. If you hold wood in your hand, then by the testimony of your eyes you have only one body. But it is of no advantage for you to know this. The clowns see and know as much. You should descend and penetrate beneath the surface, when you would learn that you are pressing in your hands Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. Now if you can detect these three things by looking, touching, and handling them, and perceive them separated each from the other, then at last you have found those eyes with which a physician ought to see. Those eyes ought to see these three constituents as plainly as the clown certainly sees the crude wood. Now this example may make you able to recognise man, too, in these three, no less than wood itself. That is, you have man built up in a similar form. If you see only his bones, you see as the clown sees. But if you have separated his Sulphur, his Mercury, and his Salt, then you see clearly what a bone is, and if that bone be diseased you see where it is faulty, and from what cause, and how it suffers.

So, then, the mere looking at externals is a matter for clowns ; but the intuition of internals is a secret which belongs to physicians. Now if these visible things must exist, and beyond their mere aspect medicine fails, then their nature must be deduced so that it may lay itself bare and be exhibited. Moreover, see into what ultimate matter these things are resolved, and into how many kinds. You will find these three substances divided from one another into just as many kinds. Now the clown cares nothing about all this ; but the physician cares. The mere experimentalist neglects it, but not the physician. The quack thinks nothing of it ; but the physician considers a good deal. Before all else these three substances and their properties in the great universe should be understood. Then the investigator will find the same or similar properties in man also : so that he now understands what he has in his hands, and of what he is making himself master. — f^ arciinirum^ Libf.r /.

Morbific Effects of Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. -With regard to Sulphur, its effect should be thus estimated. It never produces an evil effect by itself, unless it be astral, that is, unle.ss a spark of fire shall have been cast into it. Then is power awakened by that spark. Is not the act of burning a virile one ? Without it nothing is produced. So, then, if any disease declare itself from Sulphur, then, first of all, the Sulphur should be properly named. It is essentially a masculine operation. There are many sulphurs, such as resin, gums, botin, axungia, fat, butter, oil, iiimim ardcns, etc. There are some sulphurs of woods, some of animals, some of men, some of metals, as oil of gold, of Luna, of Mars ; some of stones, as liquor of marble, of alabaster, etc. ; some of seeds, and of all other things, each with their own special names. There is afterwards the fire falling upon each, which alone is their star, and this, too, Manual concerning the Philosophers' Stone. loi and this power is effected by indwelling harmony. So the Philosopher's Stone, which should renovate man no less than metals, if it be freed from its superfluous accidents and established in harmony with itself, performs wonders in all diseases. Unless this be done, all your attempts with it are in vain. But if you wish to establish it in its harmony you must bring it back to its first matter, so that the male may be able to operate on the female, that the outer part may act on the inner, and the inner be turned outwards, and so both seeds, the male and female, may be enclosed in complete concordance ;

that by the action of Vulcan they may be brought to more than perfection, and be exalted in degree, so that each, as a qualified, tempered, and clarified essence, pours all virtue into the human body as well as into metals. Thus will they render each sound, will drive away defilement by the method of expulsion, and introduce what is good into the human blood by its power of attraction to a due place, so that the microcosm which is situated in the limbus of the earth, and is formed out of the earth, may by this medicine, as by something like itself, be radically, and not in mere imagination, but most surely, led to health and kept therein. This is the Mystery of Nature, and such is the secret which every physician ought to know. And this, too, every one can comprehend who is born of astral medicine. But, that I may more clearly describe the nature and preparation of so excellent a medicine, so that the sons of learning, who love the truth, may be initiated, know ye that Nature has given a certain thing wherein, as in a chest, are enclosed i, 2, 3, the virtue and power whereof suflSce abundantly for preserving the health of the microcosm, so that, after its preparation, it drives away all imperfections, and is the veritable defence against old age. This we name the Balsam.'''

with its distinguishing name. And this operation is, in one respect, peccant matter. Moreover, with regard to Salt it should be known that it exists of itself as a material humour, and introduces no disease unless it be joined with its star. Its star is resolution, which gives it a masculine power. Salt, no less than the spirit of vitriol, tartar, alum, nitre, etc., exhibits itself tumultuously if it is resolved. Now, whence can such a nature be infused into humours, except by a star? About this physicians have formed a conspiracy of silence. Even if they had been guilty of no other blunder save that in all their causes and cures they had omitted the star, that would have been quite sufficient to prove that they had built their house on a foundation of moss and sand. You should know, also, that salts are manifold. Some are lime.s, some ashes, some arsenical, some antimonial, some marchasitic, and others of a similar sort. And from all of these are produced and begotten peculiar diseases according to the body of the salt ; which diseases thereupon take the name and nature special to each. So, too, understand concerning Mercury. This of itself is not virile unless the star of Sol sublimates it. Otherwise it does not ascend. Its preparations are many, but there is only one body. But the body of this is not like Sulphur or Salt, which have many bodies, from whence come different salts and different sulphurs.

This has only one body, but the star changes this in different ways, and into various natures. So, then, from the same source many diseases are produced. Thus its masculine nature comes from the star, and by this nature it has its morbific effect. If, then, all diseases are comprised under these three heads, each with its own name and title, know that you must reduce to Sulphur all that is sulphureous, in the sense that it burns. What is Mercurial should be reduced by sublimation if it be adapted thereto. What is from Salt should he reduced to such salt as is appropriate. These, then, are the three general causes of disease, as we have grouped them together above. — Ibid. Some further extensions of the philosophy of Paracelsus concerning the prime principles in their relation to disease will be found in an appendix to this volume.

• We must know before all things that a balsam resides in our body by the virtue of which the body is preserved from putrefaction. That singular balsam is present in all members of the body, for there is one in the blood, another in the marrow, a third in the arteries, bones, etc. While this balsam remains entire and uncorrupted it is impossible for any opening of the skin to take place. But when by means of the preparation of salts it happens to be corrupted, then the principles of corrosion begin ' to act. For cure in this case the whole attention must be devoted to the restoration of that which has been removed from the balsam by corruption. This is effected by the balsam derived from other elementary bodies. This, I say, is found in external elements, by which also other generated things are preserved from putrefaction. Hence it is reasonably called the mumia of the external body of the elements, that is to say, of their fruits. Such balsam is found congenital in the radical matrices of all growing things. Every body pro- In what substance Nature has placed such a number you must know beforehand ; since I am unable, for many reasons, to describe it more clearly. How it is prepared, Galen, Rhasis, and Mesne were ignorant, and it will not be reached by their followers. For this medicine requires such preparation as mere pill-sellers do not compass, and understand less about it than a Swiss cow.

Moreover, it involves, as it were, celestial and special modes of operation. For it purifies and renovates, so to say, by regenerating, as you can read more at length in my Archidoxies, and at the same time study the origin and essence of metals and of metallic substances, together with their powers. He, therefore, who has ears to hear, let him hear, and see whether Theophrastus writes about lies or about the truth, and whether he is uttering mere inanities from the devil, as do you, O Sophist, utter your trifles — you who are from the devil and are surrounded by lies and obscurities, and call nothing good unless it be comprehensible by your fool's head, and that makes for your broth without any previous labour. For you, with your one eye, wander about at random, and cannot get straight to your kitchen window. By all means, twist your intricate thread, and try to find the centre of the labyrinth, by means of an obscure star ; this will in no wise offend me. But if you would only use your foresight sometimes, and see whereupon the art of Theophrastus is founded, and how feeble your patchworks are, Theophrastus would not be so opposed to you. But what things I now write briefly, and shall write, so that my astral disciples may be able to perceive them, and enjoy them, and boast of them, these, through the diligence of one who is not ashamed to learn, can be easily understood ; since there is nothing so difficult but that it may be understood and learned by labour and study. The practical method of this work, then, is as follows : —

The Preparation of the Matter of the Stone. Take some mineral electrum in filings. Put it in its own sperm (others read. Take the immature mineral electrum, place it in its own sphere), so that all impurities and superfluities may be washed away from it, and purge it as vided with life is vital by reason thereof. The first thing to be considered in its extraction is the quantity present in the given body, for our intention regards not the body, nor the form, but solely the inherent balsam by which it lives. The extraction of these balsams is almost accomplished by separation, that is to say, while the arcanum is being removed from the body which was sustained by the balsam. You must know that elementary balsam is nothing else than that which we are accustomed to call mercurial liquor in the three principles. Whence it follows that all curative efficacy resides in Mercury. Mercury of this kind usually appears most manifestly in thereniabin and nostoch, as also in minerals of water, the fruits of the earth, and in the stars. Hence it is clear why antimony is so efficacious in the cure of ulcers, namely, because it contains mercurial liquor more abundantly than the other species of marcasite. In like manner the curative virtue of gold must be understood, for no body produced from the element of water contains a more copious or more subtle mercurial liquor. Thus also, among things which grow out of the earth, there is not a more arcane remedy than the mercurial liquor of cheirine and realgar.

The same is to be understood of chaos and the firmament according to the method of their operations. But for the understanding of every mercurial liquor it is necessary to know that metals can be transmuted into a certain matter of this kind -as iron into crocus of Mars, Venus into flower of copper, tin into spirit of Jupiter. Yet these are not true liquors, but need a more exact separation according to their canons. There are extant various forms and descriptions of balsams according to the categories of the four mineral elements in the writings of the ancients. Some are wont to describe them according to the form of a plaster, others of a powder, others of the oil of water, etc. But I think that these descriptions ought to be completely rejected as purposeless, devoid of skill, plainly repugnant to Nature, and dependent on a dietary regimen which is the foe of Nature. The true and only balsam perfectly purges out and removes that which is separated, restoring the body to its original condition by the accession of fresh hA^axn. — Chirurgin Magna, Pars. III., Lib. V.

completely as possible by means of stibium, after the manner of the alchemists, so that you may suffer no harm from its impurity. Afterwards, resolve it in the stomach of the ostrich, which is born in the earth, and is strengthened in its virtue by the sharpness of the eagle. When the electrum is consumed, and, after its solution has acquired the colour of the calendula, do not forget to reduce it into a spiritual pellucid essence, which, indeed, is like amber. Then add half as much of the spread eagle as the corporal electrum weighed before its preparation. Frequently extract from it the stomach of the ostrich, by which means your electrum becomes continually more and more spiritual. But when the stomach of the ostrich becomes weary with labour, it is necessary to refresh it and always to abstract it. Lastly, when it again loses its sharpness, add tartarised quintessence, but so that at the height of four fingers it may be deprived of its redness, and may pass over together with it. Do this for so long a time and so often until it grows white of itself. When, now, it is enough (for you will see with your eyes how it will gradually fit itself for sublimation), and you have this sign, sublimate. Thus the electrum is turned into the whiteness of the exalted eagle, and with very little labour it is transferred and transmuted. Now, this is what we seek in order to use it in our medical practice. With this you will be able to succeed in many diseases which refuse to yield to vulgar medical treatment. You will also be able to convert this into a water, into an oil, and into a red powder, and to use it for all purposes for which you require it in medicine.

But I say to you in truth that there is no better foundation for all medicine than lies hid in electrum. Although I do not deny, nay, I write it in my other books, that great secrets lie concealed in other mineral bodies as well ; yet they require greater and longer labour, and the right use of them is not easy, especially to the unskilled ; so that if any one attempts them he causes more harm than good. For this reason it is not advisable that every alchemist should seek to practise the art of medicine when he has no acquaintance with it. Some prohibitory method should be devised which might debar such imaginary physicians. I, indeed, will not take their blame, or recognise them as disciples, since they do not pursue the truth, but I hold them as known deceivers, and lazy vagabonds, who take the bread out of the mouth of true disciples, and do harm to such deliberately, and think nothing of conscience or of art. In the prepared electrum we have described there lies hid so much power of healing men that no surer or more excellent medicine can be found in the whole worid. The Galenists, indeed, those drug-selling doctors, call it poison and oppose it, not from any knowledge of it, but from mere pride and folly. I grant, indeed, that there is a poison in its preparation, as great as, or greater, than that of the Tyrian serpent which forms an ingredient in theriaca. But that after its preparation the poison remains has not been proved. For Nature, though by some blockheads this is not understood, always inclines to her own perfection, and much more, therefore, may be brought to perfection by proper methods. What is more, I grant that

after its preparation it is a greater and more potent poison than before ; but it is such a poison as seeks after its like, to find out fixed and other incurable diseases, and to expel them. It does not suffer the disease to speed its course and do injury, but as if it were an enemy to the disease it attracts the kindred matter to itself, consumes it from the very roots, and washes it as soap washes the spots from a foul rag, along with which spots the soap retires also, leaving the rag pure, uninjured, clean, and fair to look upon. So, then, this poison, as you say, has a far different and better effect than your axungia which you employ to cure the French disease, anointing more frequently than the currier does a hide. This arcanum, which lies hid in this , medicament, has within it a well-proportioned, well-prepared, and excellent essence, which can be compared to no poison, unless one understands it, as I said before ; and it is as different from your quicksilver, which you use as an ointment, and from your precipitate, in virtue and efficacy, as heaven from earth. It is, therefore, called, and really is, a medicine blessed by God, which has not been revealed to all. It is better compounded than that dirty medicine which the slowly walking doctor has in his gown, or has filtered through his fillet or hood.

Moreover, this blessed medicine has thrice greater force and virtue for operating in all diseases, however they may be called, than all the drug shops you ever saw. But I did not find this in idleness, by sitting still, and by sloth, nor did I find it in an urinal, but by travelling, or, as you say, by wandering, and by much diligence and labour it was necessary for me to learn it, so that I might know and not merely think. But you suck your medicine out of the old cushion and bolster on which some old witch has sat who has covered your celestial head with a blue hat for medicine and breathed on you. So, then, I shall never regret my travels, and I shall remain your master and follow in the steps of Machaon, which, indeed, spring from the light of Nature as a flower from the warmth of the sun. But in order that my proposed task may not be delayed and remain imperfect, observe further how the thing must be done, and what power and property of medicine Nature has given to the Philosophers' Stone, and how it leads on to its end.

Here follows the remainder of the Preparation. Having destroyed your electrum, as aforesaid, if you wish to proceed urther, in order that you may come to the desired end, take the electrum which has been destroyed and rendered evanescent, as much of it as you wish to bring to perfection, place it in the Philosophic Egg, and seal it closely so that nothing may evaporate. Stand it in Athanor until, without any addition, it begins of itself to be.resolved from above, so that it looks like an island in the midst of that sea, gradually decreasing every day, and at last being changed into the resemblance of blacking. This black substance is the bird which flies by night without wings, which the first dew from heaven, with its constant influence, its ascent and descent, has changed into the blackness of a Manual concerning the Philosopher^ Stone. 105 crow's head. Then it assumes the tail of a peacock, and subsequently acquires the wings of a swan. Lastly, it takes the highest red colour in the whole world, which is the sign of its fiery nature, whereby it drives out all the accidents of the body, and warms again the cold and dead limbs.

Such a preparation, according to the opinion of all philosophers, is made in a single vessel, in a single furnace, in a single fire, the vaporous fire never being allowed to cease. So this medicine is as if heavenly and perfect, or at least can become more perfect than the moon, by its own flesh and blood, and by the interior fire being turned outwards and prolonged, as was just now said, whereby all the impurities of metals are washed away, and the occult properties of the same are made manifest. For this more than perfect medicine is all-powerful, penetrates all things, and infuses health at the same time as it expels all disease and evil. In this respect no medicine on earth is like it. In this, therefore, exercise yourself and be strenuous, for this will bring you praise and glory, and you will not be a mere quack, but a real scientist, and, moreover, you will be compelled to love your neighbour. For such a divine secret no one can perceive and understand without divine aid, since its virtue is unspeaTsable and infinite, and by it Almighty God is known. Know, too, that no solution will take place in your electrum unless it thrice runs perfectly through the sphere of the seven planets. This number is necessary for it, and this it must fulfil. Attend, therefore, to the preparation, which is the cause of the solution, and for your glorified, destroyed, and spiritualised electrum use the tartarised arcanum for washing off superfluities which accrue in the course of preparation, so that your labour may not be in vain.

Of the arcanum of the tartar nothing will remain, only you must proceed circularly with it according to the number mentioned. Thus, easily of itself is produced in the philosophic &g% and the vapour of fire the philosophic water, which the philosophers call aqua viscosa ; it will also coagulate itself, and represent all colours, so that at last it is adorned with the deepest red. I am forbidden to write more to you on this mystery, such is the command of the Divine Power. Assuredly is this art the gift of God. On this account it is not all who understand it. God gives it to whom He will, and suff'ers no one to extort it from Him by violence. He alone will have honour in this work ; Whose name be for ever blessed. Amen.

Here follows the Use of the Stone. And now it is necessary that I should write concerning the use of this medicine, and concerning its weight. You must know that the dose of this medicine is so small and so light as is scarcely credible. It should only be taken in wine, or something of that kind, and always in the smallest quantity on account of its celestial power, virtue, and efficacy. For it is only revealed to man for this reason, that nothing imperfect should remain in Nature, and it has been so provided and predestined by God that its virtue and arcanum should be produced by art, in order that to man, made hi the image of God, all created things should be made to do service, and that before all else God's almighty power should be known. Whosoever, therefore, has intellect from God, to him this medicine shall be given. That ignorant Galenist, Beanus, will not be able to comprehend it, nay, he will turn from it in disgust. For all his works are works of darkness, while this work takes effect and acts in the light of Nature. And so, now, in brief but true words, you have the root and origin of all true medicine, which no one shall take from me, even though Rhasis with all his base progeny should go mad, and Galen be bitter as gall. Let Avicenna gnash his teeth, and Mesne in a word measure the length and breadth, it will be too high for all of them, and Theophrastus will stand by the truth. On the contrary, the lame works of the ointment-people, and the unctions of the physicians and doctors, with all their pomp and authority, shall go to utter destruction.

There is only one thing more to say, since to many this description of mine will appear obscure. You will say, O my Theophrastus, you speak too briefly and abstrusely to me. I know your discourses, how correctly you impart your subjects and your secrets. Wherefore this description will be of no avail for me. To this I answer that pearls are not for swine, nor a long tail for a goat. Nature has not seen fit to bestow them. Wherefore I say that to whomsoever it has been given by God, he will find sufficiently and above measure, more than he wished for. I write this by way of initiation. Follow with foresight, and avoid not study and labour, nor let the parade of fools lead you astray, nor the diligence which is necessary turn you away. By constant meditation many things are found out, and this is not without its reward. So use to a good purpose what I here give you ; let it be to you a fountain, and then you will have no need to drink from the troughs of the pill-sellers, nor will your lot be with the body-snatchers, but you will be able to serve your neighbour well, and to give praise and honour to God.

These things I determined to set down briefly, in my book on the Philosophers' Stone, lest men might think that Theophrastus cured many diseases by diabolical methods of treatment. If you follow me rightly, you will do the same, and your medicine will be like the air which pervades and penetrates all that lies open to it, and is in all things, drives away all fixed diseases, and mingles itself radically with them, so that health takes the place of disease and follows it. From this fountain springs forth the True Aurum Potabile,* and nothing better can anywhere be found. Take this as faithful advice, and do not annihilate Theophrastus before you know who he is. I am unwilling to set down more in this book, even though it might be necessary to say something, and to philosophise somewhat concerning the aurum potabile and the » The lungs, the liver, the spleen, and the reins may all be sustained and nourished by potable gold, which preparation all physicians ought to have by them, because no physician is of any consideration who is without it. I am acquainted with its preparation and am possessed thereof. It would not yet be advantageous to publish it, but time will perhaps reveal it. — Chiruygia Magna, Part I., Tract I., c. 17.

liquor solis* I only wished to note these things here, and if you prepare them rightly they are not to be despised in their powers. But since other of my books treat of these secrets and make them sufficiently clear, namely, what a true physician ought to know, I will let the matter rest, hoping that this book may not be altogether without fruit, nay, that it may be of use to the Sons of THE Doctrine. May God grant His grace, to His own honour and glory ! Amen. • According to the treatise entitled De Male Ciiraiis Aegris Eesiituendis^ Lib. III., c. 30, Paracelsus in some cases made use of the Liquor Soils for the cure of leprosy. Here ends the Manual concerning the Medicinal Stone of the SEEING that certain medicines are discovered which preserve the human body for a second and subsequent periods of life, which also protect it altogether from diseases, corruptions, superfluities, and other diminutions of its powers ; nay, even when these infirmities and corruptions have broken in upon it, take them away, every physician must carefully study these medicines, and learn them from the very foundations. Indeed, numberless wearisome diseases and accidents of all kinds are taken away and extirpated from the very roots by this conservation of life.

So, then, when we propose to write concerning the preparation for a long life it must be understood that we do this in two ways. The one is theoretical, the other practical ; for the subject of long life can be understood in both of these ways. And no physician ought to wonder that life can be prolonged — this also for two reasons. One is, that no fixed limit has been laid down for us, so that on some pre-determined day we must die ; nor is this left in our own power. The other reason is, that we have medicine from Him who has made us, by means of which we can keep the body in that state of soundness wherein it was created, and expel from it all diseases whatsoever. Now from this it may be gathered that death brings with it no disease, nor is it the cause of any. On the other hand, no disease causes death. And although the two coexist together, they are still no more to be compared one with the other than fire and water. They are no more akin one to another, nor do they agree better together. Natural sickness abhors death, and every member of the body avoids it. Death, then, is something distinct from disease. So far as relates to our present purpose what we wish is .to speak to our own disciples from experience. We would speak to men who know those properties of things which are discovered by the highest art and by daily practice. To the mere pretenders and presumptuous men of medicine all these matters are perfectly occult and unknown. So it is that we write only for our own disciples, and not for those others. It is more

* The Geneva folio contains a considerable literature on the subject of long life, and this, as it will be readily understood, is full of repetitions and unimportant variations. At the same time, there is much in it which is only partially represented by the treatise translated in the text, so much, indeed, that it exceeds the reasonable limits of foot-notes, and it has, therefore, been thought better to print the Book Concerning Long Life^\ACv:\^ pretends to be complete in itself, without annotations of any kind, and to reserve the additional materials to be dealt with in a separate appendix. certain than certainty itself that the restoration and renovation of the body do take place, and that by these processes the whole frame can be transmuted to something better. In like manner, we see with our eyes that all metals are in their bodies purged so that they are protected from rust, and that even wood and the dead bodies of corpses are embalmed so that they suffer no further decay. If, therefore, such things as these are possible to Nature, why should any one shrink from our writings, supported, as they are, by examples, although put in a brief space, or stand aloof from them because we draw a comparison between the bodies of metals and those of men ? We do not suppose them to be one and the same. We know that they are altogether different ; but in both we see the same method of conservation, and this is just what would have been inferred from experience, for if a dead body, by means of embalming, can be conserved, by how much more can a living one be kept from decay ?

First, then, it should be known that this conservation, so far as it refers to the body of man, is to be considered in three parts : firstly, with regard to early youth; secondly, with regard to middle age; and thirdly, with regard to old age. Hence it can be understood why we begin severally from youth, from middle age, or from old age, since the end cannot be expected at any determinate period of life. The young life is sometimes destroyed in the mother's womb, sometimes in the cradle, sometimes during the period of growth, and sometimes, again, by the inordinate use of food or drink, whereby the nature being depraved and the strength diminished, it fails to reach the true limit of human existence. In a case of this kind the physician cannot but compare this period of life to old age, because it is equally defective and stunted in its nature. When, therefore, as often happens, children are born diminutive and sickly from their mother's womb, directly they come to the light they ought to be imbued with these conservating substances, by smearing the mother's nipples therewith, as is more fully explained in our practical method. By this method life and strength can be promoted, just as they can in the case of old men who were not so treated in their infancy. But in the matter of bodily power there is considerable resemblance between the old man's last span of life and that early period in which children are sometimes so broken down that they cannot attain to old age unless that first period of existence be fortified for them.

That is considered middle age when the body has ceased to grow and gray hairs begin to appear. At that time should anything occur to weaken or break up this period of existence, such as excessive work or debauchery, a similar method of treatment should be adopted before old age supervenes. If there be too long delay old age may never be reached at all, because that aid came too late. The final period of life may be said to begin when the hair grows gray, and it lasts up to death. If this stage be complicated with weakness and decay, again the same method must be adopted in good season. But where the no The Hermetic mid Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus. powers are sound and strong the method of conservation need only be used in proportion to the requirements. This, then, is the three-fold division of life to which we alluded ; and in whatever period the regimen of conservation shall have begun, in each alike existence starts afresh from youth, and goes through the different stages according to its limits. Now, although we are supposed to be talking with our own disciples, yet this argument, amongst others, might be brought against us by empirics. Since we have such a means of attaining long life and driving away disease and death, how comes it that so many princes, emperors, kings, and other great persons die premature deaths ? Why do they suffer from infirmities when they could purchase immunity for money, and even ward off impending death ?

We answer those who make such enquiries thus : We have never read or heard of a prince or king who used these remedies, with the single exception of Hermes Trismegistus. Many others have existed, as we point out in our book on Restorations, but they are unknown to the dwellers upon earth. And, though we do not consider them as a solution of the difficulty, yet still it must be remembered that the physicians of these emperors and princes understand less about medicine than the clowns who spend their lives in the fields. Hence it happens that they more frequently promote and conduct their princes and heroes to death than to life. Acting upon the advice of their medical men, it would be quite impossible for them to reach their proper period of life, and this on account of the ignorance of the faculty, who are physicians only in name. The argument, we repeat, is not thus answered ; but we might also put forward the irregular life of princes, who often shorten their own existence, and this more as a punishment than through devotion. Then, too, there are many princes to whom these and the like remedies are altogether unknown.

By these three cases we consider that we have answered the argument advanced against us. In what has been just said, we desire to point out not that this three-fold division of the periods of life is alone to be considered, but also something else which is by far more important, and this in two ways : one, namely, where bodies lay themselves open to diseases by irregular life, whence proceed dropsy, jaundice, gout, the falling sickness, pleurisy, and other like diseases, chronic or acute. Not only the division of the periods of life, but each disease in particular has to be taken into account by itself. In the other case diseases occur in conjunction with irregular life through the seasons or by means of accidents, as in the instance of pestilence, mania, and other visitations which are destructive of life. These two methods involve the process of long life. In this way we shall have to understand what diseases arise naturally and what from external causes connected with Nature; then those which derive their origin from something beyond Nature, as from incantations and superstitious practices, about which last there will be much more to say. For where such a disease occurs it must often be considered as a punishment, and on this account is not curable. We admonish our disciples

A Book concerning Long Life. 1 1 1 to abstain from such practices. But so far as the visitation proceeds from Nature, this we teach how to cure and guard against by natural means. Although we know and do not forget the effect of rings, images, and the like, which guard life against death, still we set down nothing on that subject here, but pass it by, because it has to do with astronomy. We speak, however, of these matters elsewhere, and proceed by another method, which is well worthy of all attention. We first set aside diseases which do not arise from the bodily constitution, or from debility, but from some other source, before we speak of means of conservation. So, too, secret diseases will have to be examined. If they were diseases like gout in the feet or the hands, falling sickness, etc., they would not have to be set aside on these grounds, but would be cured by methods of conservation. So, then, there are three different classes of disease : one of a long-standing character, such as fevers, hyposarcee, jaundices, and the like ; another of diseases proceeding from within, as pestilences, pleurisy, abscesses, and so on; and a third of chronic diseases, as gout, falling sickness, and others of like nature. The first we must pass over, for the second prescribe remedies, and in the third case suggest methods of conservation, so that they may be guarded against.

Then, again, we must not omit those diseases which have a mental origin, and arise from the sufferer's own imagination, or from that of another person, as in the case of incantations, superstitions, and the like. With such a division as this, it must be understood, by way of conservation, that those diseases which have a mental origin are in like manner removed by mental treatment : those which proceed from the patient's own ideas, by some objective mode of treatment ; those which arise from imagination, by imaginations ; and those which arise from incantations, by counterincantations ; while those which come from superstitions have to be relieved and cured by counter-superstitions. Then, after ailments of this kind have been removed from the body, there follow at once seven means of preservation, one directed to the natural strength or weakness ; another against casual or accidental diseases, and the like, with the view of guarding against them for the future ; a third against mental attacks ; a fourth against incantations ; a fifth against imaginations ; a sixth against the patient's own notions ; and the seventh against superstitions. Marvel not that no mention is here made of temperaments, because the preservation of the whole body does not depend upon these, or upon their proportions, but rests on the virtue of Nature alone, from which all other excellencies arise. For the sole virtue is that which resuscitates and re-kindles the humours, which are four in number, but of which no account need be taken in medicine. The physician who bases his treatment on the natural temperaments may be fitly compared to a person who extinguishes a fire and leaves coals still burning. It is better worth considering how to preserve the root than the branches of a tree, because from the root the strength of the tree

issues forth. If by chance anything happens to the branches — as may occur to the root of life from the temperament and the humours — this is merely an accident which in no way brings health, but rather takes it away. That we said was to be guarded against, when we were speaking of the three classes of disease, with the idea of resuscitating and re-kindling the life of the root, and, together with the branches, deriving its own nutriment thence, according as the complex qualities suggest their own remedies. When we seek to compare a short life with a long one it is necessary to know what life is, where it is, and how it may be diminished or augmented, as also whether it is something analogous to sight, touch, taste and smell. Judging by Nature, it would be impossible for us to know what it is which produces sight, and how it supplies it, as we have set down in our treatise on the Bodily Faculties, or which of those powers possessed by the body can be investigated by natural means. It is not so with life, because life does not derive its origin from natural seed, but has a spiritual source, though its origin is still natural. It is just as when the flint is struck by the steel, the fire leaps forth. There is no fire in either, and yet fire is produced from them.

They are not fiery by nature, neither in their elements nor in their combinations are they combustible bodies ; they rather resist fire more than other stones and metals do, as is seen in their transmutations, wherein no fire is elicited or can be obtained. None otherwise life takes its origin from something wherein is no life, as from the seed, the root, the sperm, and the like, just as the spark comes from the flint by the force of the ens, not of the esse. So, also, the life of man proceeds from the ens.

And then one has to consider whether this life can be produced, improved, or strengthened, seeing it is an incorporeal, volatile something, like a fire to which the more wood you supply the more fiercely it burns. In like manner, life, the more of the humour of life it has, the more the spirit of life abounds in that life. Hone the fire bursts forth from some substance in which is no fire, it is impossible for us to know. Some think that it is due merely to hardness ; but how this can be the cause of a substance supplying that which is not contained in it, is not a subject for discussion in this place, where we treat solely concerning life. Since, then, we see that life is, as it were, a burning and living fire, in this way it is illustrated to us in a material fashion and in a sense which comes under our ocular observation, that life belongs to the same category as fire, and we know that fire lives in wood, as also in resins and oily substances. None otherwise life according to its goodness or evil is strong or weak. Whatever of good or evil fire there is in it, as in the wood, we are able naturally to amend, or to add that in which it delights, or by which it will be rekindled ; we can regulate it at our pleasure, can supply something stronger and stronger when another thing fails, substituting something else in its place exactly as the fire is renovated with fresh wood. Though it had been well nigh extinguished down to its last spark, it is again kindled, and burns more

brightly than before. It is increased by those replenishments, or by any other mode of regulation we see fit to adopt. Nor let us think that we must die on some precise day, sooner or later, or that it is derogatory that a Christian should believe it possible to prolong life by medicaments created by God for that purpose. Nay, it is altogether a mark of idolatry or of idiotcy not to believe that this is put in our power, just as we said above of fire. Our only defect is that we do not know the special kinds of wood by which we can kindle our life. It is not against Nature that we should live until the renovation of the world : it only passes our comprehension. For the most part we lack wisdom, so that we are unable to judge what there is in existence which is useful for us, especially since we altogether ignore our powers in this respect. Adam, whom we think the wisest of mortal men, had perfect knowledge of these matters. Although he was deprived of the tree of life, this is not a matter of theology, but of medicine. There is a natural tree of life —the tree of the soul.

Since, then, we are writing and teaching about long life, we should, in due course, at this point consider that kingdoms, districts, states, and valleys more or less contribute to the prolongation of existence. Some are more useful for the purpose than others. They affbrd more joy, more fresh air, and humours which are healthful to life. Among these exist causes which we ought to understand, connected with the land, the elements, the winds, the stars, and so on, which can make life longer than the common span of human existence. From the earth is produced everything that nourishes and supports our life ; and also that which destroys it and makes it perish. Hence we can gather that evil arises to our bodies not only from such things as poison and opiates, but from those things by which life is chiefly supported, as from gold and balm. Nor should it be thought that medicaments were created only for use against disease, as, for example, the Tyrian remedy against poison, nor should it be inferred that these have no operation in healthy bodies. For we should know that to keep the body in health just as many things have grown up as for taking away health. We can, by our daily food and drink, at one time injure our bodies, at another benefit them and keep them in health, according to our use or abuse of these things. Whatever we use of these elementary things becomes useful or hurtful to us according to our reception of them.

For whatever the fire in us consumes as it burns, that the fire restores to us when it is extinguished. Whatever loss is brought about by the one or the other the air itself compensates. It never refuses life or deserts us ; it is we who do this for ourselves when we withdraw from the air. In this way, whatever one element takes away from us, some other element supplies in the way of conservation ; and by an alternation of this kind those elements are regulated, so that they may do us as little harm and as much good as possible.

And although the air may sometimes destroy us by the infection with which it is occasionally contaminated, still we are able to discover this, and VOL, II, I even in another direction turn it to our advantage. The air is both particular and universal, good in one place, bad in another, just as one land is better than another. In like manner, it is compared with water, which, like the air, is sometimes to be avoided by us, and the same is the case with fire. For from one kind of wood a better and more healthful flame proceeds than from another. So, also, influences and the stars above ought to be understood, since they have the power of breaking up our health in different ways, and of destroying our health. In like manner, it must be remarked, that among these some have the power of conferring health and of prolonging life. For there is no section, species, or kind so bad but that some good also exists therein, though we are not able to twist and turn this, or to regulate it for our advantage, as, for instance, that we should be able to appropriate to ourselves Jupiter and to reject Mars, or to select for ourselves other useful and convenient stars, as we do with herbs, some of which we choose and others we reject. We have not the same kind of power over superior objects of rejecting the one and selecting another ;

though even here we have some power when we bring it about through some means that they exert their influence on the inclinations, as when we use the rings or images of the planets, and other methods which we will explain more fully and clearly as we write. Furthermore, too, it must be considered that sometimes our life depends upon the aforesaid causes, and similar ones, either to be diminished or prolonged. We will say at greater length what good or evil can result to us from these, so that we may be able to understand the powers of God and His creation ; not that we would presume to scrutinise these from their foundation, or fully describe them from the beginning, but only give some fragmentary thoughts concerning them.

More at length we have to consider in what essential way such things as diet, medicines, places of habitation, and the higher bodies exert their influence over us, so that we may be able to avail ourselves of the virtues contained in them, and to extend our life, and understand what their influence is, as also how they are able to do us good and help us. Their virtue far exceeds ours, because it is less subject to any sensible virtue, and it may help us just as a log is not able to burn unless some oiliness survives in it. The virtues of the things we have spoken about by far surpass ours in their consummate strength, and this in the following way : Their essence and property, their nature and quality, are incorruptible and permanent, since they do not die like mere sensible bodies, or as man dies, who is deprived of life and stripped of all his powers when his body becomes a corpse. Yet herbs and like objects do not perish essentially. For the substance of these things, even when the material body putrefies, remains, an incorrupted essence indeed, in the earth, passing on in turn to its own like until the remaining earth is consumed. They are taken up for its use, and their essence passes through their decaying bodies into the earth. But in the case of man, his virtue, essence, and properties do not remain with his corpse, but withdraw themselves from decay.

Hence it is gathered that we are not able to receive into our bodies the essence of herbs and the Hke, so that those bodies may be increased and nourished by the virtues of those herbs, simply because we receive the properties of the herbs, so that if one takes a pound of the quintessence of hellebore it relaxes the body as that herb does, or if a man eats gold his body shall become golden. By no means. Here is the difference : the one is appropriated, and the other remains in a material form within the body, with all its virtues abiding in itself. This is an essence, not a property, but a certain esse from which is produced an essence endowed with all its properties and appropriate natural gifts. Such an essence, when it has entered the body, mingles with the humours for sustaining the spiritual life. This essence is a humour, and constitutes the life of the thing, and for this reason the two humours combine in one, and agree in their intermixture so that the inner receives the esse of the outer. The one is united inseparably with the other, just as one wine is mixed with another. Moreover, it must be remarked that consumption goes forth from that body because the humours of man's body are always mortal, and liable to decay ; whence it occurs that essences are deteriorated and weakened for the future.

There are, then, in this one two contrary things, whereof one is corruptible as the humour of life, but the other, which is fixed, consists of the essences of things, their humours, and liquids. That which is fixed gives assistance until it is consumed, just as talc does, which fire has no power to injure, but, nevertheless, in process of time it is consumed in another way. With regard to long life, we complain bitterly, because we are deprived of the power to understand what we should take when weakness seizes on the fixed substance, and we become weak, like a lion worn out with a long fight, and no more abounding in strength, or when we have no wood to add to a fire that is going out.

We know that there are some medicines, and some regions in which there is no death, in others it is slow, and life is very long because the harmonies which prolong life are in these places most abundant. Although there are in these places some who are mortal, still they live a very long time, concerning whom I do not purpose at present to write more fully. We should know also that some persons are immortal, so that we ought to learn what is mortal and what is not, as also what the grades of the universe are, what vast natural powers exist therein, and how supremely man may be beautified by a long life. This can be understood in two ways. That is mortal which cannot remain until the destruction of the world. That is immortal which will await such destruction, though these very things are themselves mortal. This lower world is not going to remain for ever in its substance. What is born therein is divided into mortal and immortal, so far as natural things are concerned only in common speech. For the world is not one and undivided, but partitioned off into regions, namely, Paradise and the outer world. In the latter we live with such hope as we can. But in Paradise, which is the other world, there is no death. This is no miracle, but purely natural, because the

nature of that world allows it. Just as our gold preserves one from leprosy, so does Paradise preserve us from death, hot by a miracle in either case. Nor must it be understood as though our dead body was to rise, which would be a miracle, as we have said in our book on Heaven and Earth. It is most necessary we should know that in Paradise is born a being immortal in its substance. Moreover, in the essence of the outer world we have nothing but a fixed essence and a corruptible body, which are both preserved in Paradise. But to write much about this belongs not to our experience, beyond what the earthy essence teaches, which affords a centre. Nor ought we to discuss at length about these matters, since they far exceed our imagination, and every faculty which seeks to learn whilst on earth the order of Paradise. We speak of these things after a spiritual manner, rather in a dream than waking, and only for this reason to shew that the life there is enduring, up to the consummation, or perhaps beyond it, but this is to us occult. Whatever, then, is from Paradise is able to render our life immortal, and not the Nile itself could wash away that attribute or despoil us of that virtue. We are by our materiality, by our place of abode, and by our pursuits deprived of a certain amount of power, and so we will not write further about these matters. Still, we will endeavour to teach in the sequel about a long life, so far as it shall be in our power to look into the matter, leaving those things which we are not able to grasp, and rather considering the predestination of each in particular.

In order to write more fundamentally concerning long life, weighing everything that conserves and defends it, it should be known that mind and being are the two methods by which soundness is either taken away or secured. In these two the health of our whole body, and everything that we do, is established. Out of the mind those matters regulate us which are therefrom produced, which also specially belong to it, as incantation, imagination, thoughts, and influences, all of which operate in the mental sphere. From the being those things govern us which belong to that department, such as the complexions, the qualities, the limbs, and the bones. Furthermore, this must be known and understood, that incantation, estimations, imagination, and influences are submerged in our mind when our thoughts are so plentiful and so powerful as to master our reason and our mind. So, too, from the most powerful forces of imagination, estimation, and incantation, the reason is submerged like the fragrance from the rose, whence it happens that it introduces syncope and madness amongst its influences, and so rules in the mind that it masters it and dominates it, not because it is produced in the mind, as the three preceding things are, but it has such a power of inclination, that it can turn it to good or evil, just as the sun shining through some glass tints according to its own nature whatever is contained in it. No otherwise does our mind exert a transmuting power according to its natural life, like ice melting in the sun. Those things which proceed from the being bring to us bodily infirmities from our complexions and qualities, which complexions

originally arise from the being, and this is conserved by the humours, according to the bodily organisation. It is in no way necessary to consider diseases of this kind, or the origins, beginnings, and essences of the mind and the being, nor again to inquire what the cholera is, or the phlegm, or the blood, or melancholy, but only to proceed generically, as will be shewn below. First, then, we will approach our practical method, because those other matters have no relevance to mental aflfairs, or mental things to them. So we will assign to bodily things each its own substantial medium, and, while remaining silent about mental things, we will point out the effect which these others have in the curative process. Understand, then, that the bodily substance must be conserved in the humour alone, as being that wherein is the life, and from which the complexions, and so on, are regulated. It is not the complexions or the qualities that have to be conserved or purified, nor need the losses of the liver or the spleen to be taken into consideration. Conservation itself removes all these things, and blots out all defects of a similar kind, together with all that is superfluous in the body, and thus reduces it to a state of equilibrium. Conservation of this kind does not operate thus by means of some grand specific of its own, but by means of its altogether incorruptible essence.

We determine, therefore, to forget for the present higher matters, and to point out the practical method in its due order. Here the regimen must be first of all preserved, afterwards the disposition of the body must be considered, and thirdly, medicine. On these three the conservation is to be established. Regimen, from which we start, as regards regions, scarcely comes into the question amongst other matters, as it needs the least precautions, and only the convenient order and disposition of medicine. We put, therefore, our chief trust in that medicine which not only conserves man in youth, but also affects brutes. The chief essence of the same, which is present in natural objects, kindles the body with so excellent a virtue that no strength or virility can be wanting to it. At the same time no disease can affect it, since, through the conservation of youth, no decay is suffered to take place, no putrefaction can occur, no disease arises. It does not even admit the excrescence of superfluities, whence it follows that no disease proceeds from superabundance, whilst, at the same time, it prevents the body from being corrupted, and so no evil can arise from corruption. Finally, it so protects the body that none of those diseases can enter which flow out from imagination or impression. In like manner, those diseases which proceed from tartarus are unable to adhere to it, and if any has fastened upon it beforehand it is removed. When you have once received what we lay down concerning a long life, there is nothing left which you can wish to understand from common sense, since we disclose our meaning only to those who have a good and extensive knowledge. Now, then, we will explain our method and practice as briefly as possible, though they will not be intelligible by common persons. We write only for those whose intelligence is above the average.

Its practical use is that one dram of this conservation should be taken once every month in the best wine, if the nature, up to that time, has not become debilitated. If decline has commenced, a dram should be taken every week. In the same way, if ninety or a hundred years have been reached, the same quantity mentioned above should be taken every three days. It should be carefully noted that if any one has been deprived of virile powers, the weight should be increased as necessary. For the natural power of man is virile in its own degree, and more potent for suffering in one than in another. All this must be taken into account in cases of conservation for the reason we have mentioned in the words preceding. Sometimes the constitution of a man is so weak that he cannot be conserved, as in the case of those who from birth have no good foundation or root. As a sponge cannot admit fire in the same way as wood does, so these persons do not admit of conservation in the same way as others do. So, then, though the medicine be perfect, still, on account of defect in the subject, in the way of constitution and perfection as required by Nature, the operation is weakened.

Concerning the female sex, too, it should be understood that, so long as this method of imagination is applied, the menses will not fail for another period of life, nor yet fecundity for conceiving and bearing children ; provided only that the women, by their natural constitution, are qualified for this. For the spirit of life which is in them expels every contrary influence and conforms everything as it ought. So, too, of the yet unborn foetus. If at birth it be thus conserved it acquires a thoroughly sound constitution, proof against all diseases and preserved for a long life. A long life depends on three things : the vital spirit which conserves life in us all : after this arise the different temperaments and qualities, like the trunk and branches from a single root. We place the reception of conservation herein, and endeavour to defend the rational spirit, by our conservation of the nature, from all those accidents which could be occasioned by temperament, such as excessive sorrow or joy, which arise from the humours. These, again, are fourfold, varying with the temperament and the qualities, and so on. For these no special medicine need be used. If the vital spirit only be conserved, these vital humours are conserved also, and if these exist without any defect, no perverted elements, such as temperaments, can arise. So, by this method, the body, and all that is therein, is rendered sound and healthy.