When I was in my youthful days, and saw many attempting to fix Mercury with Gold and Silver, by Amalgamation, Sublimation, Coagulation, Precipitation, and other Labours of that kind, to transmute it into Gold and Silver; my self also attempted somewhat about him, by the advice of Paracelsus’s Sayings, That in Saturn its Coagulation is to be found. On this account I melted in a little Crucible 6 or 7 parts of Lead, and added one part of Mercury; this I put into another Crucible where Nitre did flow, that it might be covered over thereby; in the mean while I melted the glass of ♄, (being made of 4 parts of Minium, and one part of Flints) in a greater Crucible, whereto I put the two former Crucibles heated to be covered by the glass. These three I again sunk into a new Crucible flowing with the glass of ♄, thinking that I should this way keep in the volatile Guest, having now shut up Mercury in so many walls, I put him to the fire, intending to fix him, and then indeed he sustained it, not being able to break through; but increasing my fire, and the Glass melting with Nitre, away he goes leaving an empty nest, and left ♄’s weight whole and perfect, which having examined, it yielded a grain of Silver heavier than the common ☽ which I believed to be Mercury fixt and coagulated, but reiterating that labour, I found it to be otherways, viz. that the Mercury was not it self fixed, but flown away, but yet by his occult power penetrated and meliorated the lead, that it afforded a little silver; also the whole mass of lead was hereby made black, and hardened like tin, whereby I perceived, that Mercury being a pure, meer fiery spirit, is most impatient of the Fire, and cannot be fixed without a Quintessence.
But thus much indeed it can do, if being joined with other metals, it can be so long held, as to endure the Fire; although it presently vanisheth away, it doth in a manner change them, not by bettering them, but stirring them up by its penetration, that they may mutually act each upon the other, and receive a meliorating faculty, although without any great profit, as far as I know, but I only intend to discover its possibility, its miraculous and almost unsearchable power, for it may deservedly be esteemed a Miracle of Nature. It is a meer invisible Fire; albeit such as are ignorant account it cold, and by Art it may be made far more fiery and volatile; which I sometimes have tryed, where being often injected into a vehement fire, again and again, and received in Glasses, it hath elevated it self without any fire, and gone away into its own Chaos. In a word, many men have accomplished prodigious things with Mercury, but all of them without any fruit; of which more shall be spoken in its place.
The Second Rule.
Of Jupiter and his Nature.
Whatsoever thing is manifest, (as the Body of Jupiter for example) the six other Corporeal Metals are therein hidden spiritually, and one more profound and remote than another. Jupiter partakes not of the quintessence, but of the nature of the four Elements, therefore his fluidity is manifested by a little heat of the Fire, and his coagulation in like sort perfected by a little cold, and hath communion with the rest of the metalline Fluxes.
Wherefore by how much one thing is in nature like to another, by so much the readier is it united thereunto, if they mutually touch one another; that also which is nigh, is more efficacious and sensible; for that which is afar off, doth not enforce, nor is that which is remote, how great soever it be, much feared. Hence ’tis that heaven is not desired, because ’tis far distant, nor seen by any one; neither is hell feared, because it is far off, whose form none hath known and seen, nor felt the Torment, and therefore ’tis valued as nothing. Those things then that are absent, are little regarded, or plainly rejected, being constituted in a thick place, for by the property of the place every thing is deteriorated or meliorated; which thing may be proved by many Examples.
By how much therefore Jupiter is farther off from ♂ and ♀, and nigher to the Sun and Moon, by so much the more Golden or Silver-like is he in his own body, and seems more great, potent, pellucid, sensible, more fair, pleasant, notable, palpable, more true and more certain than elongated, or at a distance. On the contrary, by how much the more he is elongated, by so much the more vile and abject he is in the matters aforesaid: for things present are alwaies more notable than those which are absent: by how much any thing visible is nearer, by so much a thing invisible is more remote. Therefore it behoves the Alchymist to study how he may place Jupiter in a spiritual Arcanum and remote place, in which are Sol and Luna; and that he may take Sol and Luna from far, and bring them near, into a place where Jupiter existeth corporally, so that the Sol and Luna may also be corporal and truly present before his eyes in the Examen. For there are various labours and modes of transmuting metals from their imperfection, into a perfect state.
To mix one with another, and again to separate the one from the other pure and sincere, is nothing else but a genuine permutation made by the labour of Alchymy. Note, that Jupiter hath much Gold, and not a little Silver. Put to him Saturn and Luna, and the Luna will be augmented by the rest.
Glaub.] Although I do not certainly know the reason why Paracelsus beginning with Mercury, passeth next to Jupiter; nevertheless it is very probable that he would thereby point at some singular Mystery. Here he repeateth the former sentence, saying, Every visible metal hideth in it self the rest invisibly, from which if we would reap any good, their invisible and spiritual Gold is to be taken and brought near, or to be visible; and on the contrary, the visible to be removed afar off and made invisible. But how this ought to be done he doth not teach, but leaves the Reader to search it out in his seven Canons or Rules, which are very difficult to be understood not only by a rude Tyro, but even by one well exercised: And seeing that not one in a thousand understands them, it is no wonder that his Writings have been had in Contempt.