3. So likewise the Seeds of Vegetables, are not all pure Seed, but the House and Vehicle thereof, that is, of the growing and multiplying virtue, which appears in that when the Seeds have been kept so long till this vital virtue is exhaled from them, they never bring forth any thing.
4. No more can Sol be said to be the Seed of metals, but onely the receptacle thereof, for the Seed is not the whole Body, but onely the lively colour of the Body, and the vegetative and multiplicative virtue that is hid in it.
5. Now as the Seed of Vegetables is more perfect and noble than the Vegetables, so likewise is mature fixt Sol, more perfect than Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, though in the imperfect metals also a Seed be hid, but not so fixt and good as that in Gold.
6. The imperfect metals may be compared to an Herb, whose Seed is not yet ripe, which being put into the ground cannot grow or multiply, but rots in the Earth.
7. The virtue of Corals lies not in their whole Bodies, but in their colour; and therefore Paracelsus bids us not to make use of Corals in substance, but extract their Tincture, and use that for Physick, wherefore also he rejects white Corals, as being an unripe Fruit, from any use in Physick.
8. For this reason also the immature gray Pearls, which are frequently found in Cockle Shells in fresh running waters, are looked upon as useless in Physick.
9. And this not without reason, for as unripe Grapes are the cause of griping of the Guts, and hurt the Body; so ripe Grapes nourish and strengthen the same, especially when by fermentation they have quitted their Fæces.
10. All imperfect metals subvert and trouble the Stomach, and cause vomiting and purging, and that by reason of their unripeness.
11. Whereas on the contrary Sol taken into the Body causeth not the least alteration, but powerfully strengthens the same when reduc’d to Potability.
12. Thus Sol may be compared to ripe Grapes, which when eaten raw, do indeed no hurt to the Body, but rather affords some nourishment, yet cannot strengthen the Heart, Brain, and whole Body, and make a chearfull mind; but when by fermentation they are delivered from their skins and other impurities, they readily and as it were in a moment perform all this.