I cannot but on this occasion speak a word of the Leprosie and its cure; which being confessedly a Saturnine disease, may easily be cured by Saturnine Medicaments, such as are Black Lead, the Antimony of Wise men, or Magnesia of Saturn, being duely prepared. But to return to our Lead or Leprous Gold, and enquire how we may best rid him of his Melancholy Leprosie, and instead thereof restore to him a healthy sanguine complexion, which can no way better be done than by evacuating his sharp corrosive blood, or dulcifying of it. For, as has been said, Lead contains a sharp sal-nitrous Spirit, which corrodes and devours all hard things, which the Ancients have intimated by their portraying him with a sharp Sythe in one hand, and in the other holding a young Child, which he devours; wherefore also he is called a devourer of Infants, and a ravenous Wolf. Which ravenous property he expresses to the life, when on the Cupel he devours whatsoever is added to him, and therefore is called an unmercifull Father to his Children, because he devours and destroys them. According to all Philosophers and Astronomers he is the highest and first of all the Planets in the Firmament, upon which account the other Planets and Metals, viz. Sol, Luna, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury are call’d his Children, though improperly, for they are his Brethren, which he devours, swallows and destroys on the fiery Cupel, except Sol and Luna, which though he swallows as well as his other Brethren, yet can he not concoct or digest them, but is fain to vomit them up again, and they are so far from receiving any hurt in the Stomach of that ravenous Wolf, that they come forth much purer than before, leaving all their filth behind them. So that this devouring Glutton, notwithstanding the corrosive acidity of his Stomach cannot consume Gold or Silver, but robs them onely of their superfluous Sulphur, which is the corrupter of the Mercury in Metals, of which Paracelsus excellently writes in his Cælum Philosophorum, which I have quoted in my first Appendix concerning the use of the Alcahest.
Now that there is a great acidity in Lead, appears from this instance; because when it is melted, it pierces the Crucible, and runs through; and therefore Cupels have been invented, made of Bone-ashes, which he cannot eat through, but sinks like water into them. Yet there are also Crucibles made of Coal-dust and good Earth proportionably temper’d together, which can hold Saturn in Flux for a year together, without ever piercing them: of which more may be seen in my other Writings.
This then is the Nature and Property of Saturn, he contains much, but impure Mercury, and a sharp corrosive Salt-peter Spirit; when he is rid of these, he affords good Gold and Silver, yet not alone and of himself, but with help of his Brother Jupiter, whose superfluous Sulphur kindles the Nitrous Spirit in Lead, and consumes it; so that by this enkindling, not onely the hurtfull Salt-peter in Lead, but also the superfluous Sulphur in Tin are both consumed and destroyed. This being done, if the Tin thus mixed with Lead be driven off on the Cupel, they will yield Gold and Silver enough for a competent livelihood.
If thou would’st be further assured that Lead contains a sharp Salt-peter Spirit, which by no other way can be taken from him, than by his enemy Sulphur, by whose means it is kindled and consumed, the following Experiment will give thee full satisfaction. Onely by the way note, that this consuming of the Nitre in Lead, does very much alter its Nature, making it hard, and of difficult fusion like Iron, so that great Guns may be made of it. Now the Experiment is this: Take of the filings of Lead three parts, of Brimstone in Powder one part, put them into a Crucible, surrounded with Charcoal, so as it may heat leisurely and by degrees; by this means the Brimstone will penetrate the Lead, and mortifie its Nitrous Spirit, which is the cause of its easie fluxibility, and at the same time the Sulphur becomes mortified also, which before was more fluxible than the Lead, but now by its union with the Lead, is very hard to be fluxed. This mortification or induration of Lead, with common Brimstone, affords no Melioration, and is onely here instanced, to demonstrate there is a Salt-peter in Lead, and that Salt-peter and Lead, which both are so very fluxible, do harden and mortifie one another. But now when the Salt-peter that is in Lead is kindled and consumed by the Sulphur that is in Tin, then one Metal meliorates the other, and the hurtfull superfluity of both is destroyed, viz. the Nitre that is in Lead, and the Combustible Sulphur in Tin, from whence necessarily a melioration must ensue.
That Sulphur kills the Nitre in Lead, and makes it hard, thou mayst yet be satisfied another way, viz. Take some ounces of Lead, melt them in a Crucible, and ever and anon cast in a little piece of Brimstone into it; continue this till thy Lead be become hard and influxible, by which means thou wilt be assured that there is Nitre in Lead. And that there is Sulphur in Tin, appears in that when it is joined with Lead, they kindle and consume one another.
If thou desirest yet further to be confirmed, that there is Nitre in Lead, which makes it melt so readily, and fret through every thing; then do thus: Take Lead and melt him red-hot in a Crucible, and immediately he will pierce the Crucible and run out; take another Crucible and put Lead into it also, casting, as soon as it is melted, small bits of Brimstone upon it, which will so mortifie the fretting Nitrous Spirit in Lead, that he will be no more able to pierce the Crucible, but will for a long time continue red-hot in the same.
If this demonstration neither will satisfie thee, that the fretting nature of Lead proceeds from a sharp Mineral Salt-peter Spirit, thou mayst further prove it thus: Abstract from two ounces of filings of Lead an ounce and an half of Oil of Vitriol or Spirit of Salt in a small Retort, in which operation the dry Lead will draw to it the sharp Saline Spirit, and that which comes over will be meer insipid Phlegm, retaining nothing of its former corrosiveness. The distillation performed, take thy Lead out of the Retort, and try whether it be become more sharp by the addition of the said Corrosive Spirit, but thou wilt find that the Lead has taken in the sharp Saline Spirit, coagulated it, and changed it into a sweet Stone, in which no manner of corrosiveness can be tasted or perceived. Now if this be true, that Lead can turn such a strong corrosive Oil into a sweet Stone, we need not wonder that he has a power to coagulate, hide, and make invisible his own in-born Saline Spirit. Concerning which matter thou mayst read more in a small Treatise of mine of the Principles of Metals, wherein speaking of the Coagulation of Saline Spirits, I observe that Lead has the nature and property of Coagulating all sharp and corrosive Saline Spirits. If this instance have not sufficiently instructed thee, thou mayst make another proof thus: Take the fore-mentioned Lead, acuated with Saline Spirits, and melt it in a tripple Crucible with a fire of Fusion, let it be red-hot in Flux, and thou wilt find that in a moment it will run through thy three Crucibles, which common Lead would never do, from whence it is clear as the Sun that the piercing, fretting quality which is in Lead, proceeds from the Saline Spirits coagulated in or with it. Consider well of how great use such a Lead, whose natural devouring Faculty or Sythe is so highly acuated by Art, might be in the work of Transmutation, if we knew to make good use of it. The Philosophers writing of Saturn’s sharp Sythe, express themselves in these words, Falx ejus mordax est, His Sythe is sharp or biting: which how it may be made much sharper by Saline Spirits, has now been said. A further enlargement might here be made concerning Saturn’s Sythe; but it shall suffice at present to have demonstrated, that his easie fluxibility, and fretting devouring nature, proceeds onely from a sharp Nitrous Spirit; which when Sulphur has consumed and burnt away, much Gold and Silver may be separated from him.
Of the Nature and Property of Jupiter, what he wants, and what he hath too much of, and how his noxious superfluities may be removed, so as on the Cupel he may yield his hidden Gold and Silver.
Tin by the Heathen Philosophers has been appropriated to the Heathen God (or rather Planet) Jupiter, who has the next place in the Firmament to Saturn; is by the Miners called White Lead, and like it melts with a small heat, and easily unites with his Brother Saturn, continuing together in a moderate heat; but they no sooner become redhot, but their Brotherly love is changed to enmity, not being able to endure one another in a strong fire, but each striving to get loose from the other, which yet cannot be without the loss of one or both of their lives; so that this their combat may well be compared to the fighting of the Peasants in Lapland, whose custome is when two of them are highly incensed against each other, to suffer themselves to be tied fast together, so as they cannot fly back or run away, and then fall to cutting and slashing one another so long with their knives, till the Death of one or both of them follows.
But to return from whence we have digressed. That Saturn and Jupiter are Brothers, the Heathen History informs us, relating that the four Brothers, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, their chief Gods, fell into discord amongst themselves which of them should be the greatest; which contest of theirs was at last by the mediation of the other Gods composed, they agreeing to divide the Empire of the World between them. And though Saturn were older than his Brother Jupiter, yet was he fain to content himself with the command of the Earth, whilst Jupiter took upon him that of Heaven, Neptune that of the Sea, and Pluto the Dominion of Hell. Which Division will not at all seem strange to those that understand Nature, who find that each Brothers lot was very correspondent and comporting with their nature. The Nature of Saturn much resembles the Earth, and he makes all things that he takes to him like the Earth; as appears from the fore-mentioned contest with his Brother Jupiter. But Jupiter, because inwardly he is very sulphureous and fiery, therefore is the Government of the fiery Heaven properly deputed to him, leaving Saturn to dig and moil in the Earth: Wherefore also the Ancients have represented him with a Spade in his hand, thereby intimating his Property of digging through or piercing all things: whereas they figured Jupiter with Thunder bolts, and fiery Lightning-flashes in his hand, whence came that Proverb, Procul à Jove, procul à Fulmine; Far from Jupiter, far from his Thunder-bolts.