CHAP. VIII.
How by help of the Vegetable Fire, Mineral Fires may be extinguished, and the corrosive fiery disposition of them converted into sweetness.
It is very well known, that the greater common Fire doth always (as often as one is set near the other) either extinguish the lesser, or cause it to languish, the same also happens to Philosophick Fires. As for example, Put into a Stone dish or Pan, Spirit of Salt, Vitriol, Niter, or Sulphur, or some other acid Spirit, and three, four, or six parts of the best Spirit of Wine which kindle, and the Spirit of Wine will burn away, but the acid Spirit through the subtilty of the flame becomes sweet. Which sweet Spirits, especially that of Sulphur and Salt, manifest great Vertues in Medicine. Basil Valentine speaks of the dulcified Spirit of Salt, that it extracts from Gold its Tincture; and that he, who knows how to dulcifie it, will be honoured by Philosophers. He in like manner teacheth, that Spirit of Wine is seven times to be abstracted thence: Yet undoubtedly he intended not the vulgar Abstraction, but this secret Abstraction rather, of which we now speak. Because such Spirits are not dulcified at one time, but Spirit of Wine is often to be abstracted thence by the help of Fire, before they will be sufficiently dulcified.