Glaub.] Here we are, in the first place, taught, that for the making of ☉ and ☽ there needs not many Instruments nor Species, but the metals are only to be conjoined, but not by the common separation or washing: For if you should wash all the metals with Lead, yet would there remain no more ☉ and ☽ than was taken at the beginning; the rest will descend with the Lead into the Cupel, and will lie at the top thereof like Scoria; therefore he doth again direct to a spiritual Commixtion and Philosophical Separation. Also he adds, That ’tis an honest, good, and necessary thing to dig up Metals, but that the other is the more excellent, and that deservedly, for it separates Gold and Silver by Art from the more vile metals; for all such as apply their minds to metals, do well know with what dangers, costs, labours, and Cares, they are to be gotten out; but yet ’tis not therefore to be abstained from, especially since we labour by this Rule, of having a fore-known and certain end of our pains and work; the which cannot indeed be done in metallick Mineings, for we are frequently drawn by vain hopes to bestow all our Estates on the Mines; and having spent all in vain labour, we are at last compelled to desist from the Work; but yet if it succeeds well, they yield the more plentiful Returns; and many Chronicles of Metals do testifie, That many Poor men have, by the Benefit of a rich Mine-pit, grown most Rich and Wealthy in a few years space. The finding out of Mines therefore doth wholly consist in Chance and Casualty, where Profit and Loss are equally and alike to be expected: The Work is likewise very chargeable, and can’t be set upon by every body, and therefore ’tis not for ordinary People, who have but little to lose, but for rich Men, who, though they lose much, are notwithstanding able to live, unless happily a Poor man lights upon some Earth or Sand that is very rich in ☉ and ☽, and other Metals, by the washing whereof he may get a livelihood; or else finding a rich Mine, and so betakes himself to a Rich man for his Copartner, such a one as is able to bear the Charges of digging it forth; and this is often done. But yet be it as it will, the thing is full of uncertainty. Whereas this Metallurgy, or Work on Metals, which Paracelsus makes mention of, is to be preferred far before the other, if any one (by the Grace of GOD) attaineth the Art, whereby he may with profit extract the ☉ or ☽ out of the already-digged-up Imperfect metals, which are every where to be sold.
But to return to the business in hand, viz. To illustrate the Writings of Paracelsus, who deserved much of his Country. He names some metals, out of which Gold and Silver may easily be extracted, and others, out of which ’tis difficult to get it, but in both Sol and Luna, is to be added; for ’tis profitable, yea, necessary (the which I have frequently exhorted to) in the extraction of Gold and Silver out of imperfect metals, and is volatile, and may the more commodiously make it corporeal and fixt. Then he adds, That Metals, by a longer stay in the Earth, do die, and return into stones and earth, from whence they had their original. The like happens to Man, and all Creatures; nor is there any thing in the World, how glorious soever it be, but is vain, empty, and perishing, but the Knowledge, Love, and Fear of GOD alone.
What thing Alchymy is.
Alchymy is an intention, imagination, and studying, or considering how or whereby the Species of Metals are transmuted from one degree and nature into another. Let therefore every ingenious and understanding man throughly consider the good Art of Alchymy, for he that speculates and well studies, will the sooner attain the Art and find out the Truth.
Note, That very much is to be attributed to the Stars and Stones, for the Stars are the framers of all Stones. And all the Cœlestial Constellations, the Sun and Moon, are in themselves nothing but stones, from which the Terrestrial do arise, being as it were their burnt part, Coal, Ashes, Outcast, Excrement, Expurgation, from which the Cœlestial Stones separating themselves, become clear and transparent by their proper brightness: And the whole Globe of the Earth is nothing else but a dejected, slidden down, commixt, broken, recocted Rubbish, and blown as ’twere into one Mass, having obtained Rest and Constancy in the middle Circle of the Firmament. ’Tis also to be noted, that Gemms (the names whereof I shall presently mention) together with the other Stones, came down into the Earth from the Celestial Stones or Stars, to which they are nearest in all perfection of Purity, Fairness, Brightness, Virtue, and Constancy, or Fixity, and Incorruptibility in the fire, and are in a manner like to the Celestial stones and constellations, being parts of them, and of the Nature derived from them, and are found by men in an impure gross vessel, and are supposed by the vulgar (who judge rashly of all things) to have been there born or generated; such as are found are polished, and are carried throughout the World to be sold, and are accounted as great Riches, because of their form, colour, and other Virtues, of which I am now going to Treat.
Of Gemms.
The Emerald is a green Transparent stone; it helps the Eyes, succours the Memory, defends Chastity; the which being violated, it self, viz. the stone, is hurt.
The Adamant or Diamond is a black Crystal; ’tis called Evax, because it produceth Joy: ’Tis obscure, and of an Iron colour, most hard, is dissolved with Goats blood, and exceeds not the bigness of a Filberd Nut.
The Magnet is a stone of Iron, because it attracts Iron.