The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber

by Johann Rudolf Glauber

Dost thou desire to experience what our Magnet can doe in extracting the Colours of Vegetables and Animals? then proceed thus: Boil Brasile wood, Turmerick, or any like Vegetables in Water till it be coloured, filter it, and pour a little of our Magnet into the colour’d Water; shake it together, and the Magnet will draw all the colour from the Water to it self, which falls to the bottom in form of a very subtil Powder; the Water being decanted, and the Powder dried, affords an excellent colour for Painters; Brasile wood a brown red, Farnabock a light red, Dragons-blood a bright ruby colour, Turmerick a yellow, and Indigo a curious Sky-blew. Animals, as Cochenille, &c. may be proceeded with in like manner, and will afford far better Colours than they can of themselves, because our Magnet (as hath been said) exalts all Colours whatsoever. To try this thy self, thou may’st according to my foregoing instruction prepare it, and so find by experience the wonders it will perform in extracting the Tinctures of Metals, Stones, Vegetables and Animals; which if thou dost, thou wilt find more than I have here set down. And if thou hast no time to prepare the Magnet thy self, thou mayst have it of those who prepare it in great quantities: For because this wonder-working Magnet can do such great things, I have communicated the preparation of it to a very honest friend, to the end he might make it in quantity, and vend it for the good of the World, at a Rix-dollar per Pound. With this Magnet Wool, Linnen, Silk, Bones, Feathers, &c. may be dyed or painted far more fair and lasting than any other way now known: Chymical Physicians, with the help of it, may prepare the true Quintessence of Metals and Stones for the cure of all diseases: and it will assist the Philosophers to extract Universal Tinctures from all coloured Stones and Metals, with which they may throughly and lastingly tinge white metals to Gold, and Crystal to Rubies, Saphires, Jacinths, Emeralds, &c. according to their pleasure.

In a word, he who has this Magnet and knows the use of it, needs not to read any Chymical Books for all in all is comprehended in it, as in a short time will be manifested. This Magnet is so great a Treasure that the vastest Volumes cannot contain all its virtues, it is serviceable to all men; yea no subject can be found in nature, that can produce such wonderfull and usefull effects as this our secret Sal-Armoniack. Great Books have been written concerning the common Magnet which onely draws Iron, though indeed its nature and properties be also very wonderfull; for without it there could be no sailing by Sea in the Night time, whereas now it is all one to Marriners whether they Sail by Day or by Night: but how much more highly is our magnet to be esteemed, which not onely points out to Philosophers, Physicians and Chymists, the right way through the vast and wild Sea of Chymical Operations, to their desired Port, richly laden with the best of Commodities Gold and Tinctures, but also directs Mechanicks to new ways and inventions of obtaining wealth, never before known.

Indeed as there is a great difference between Mars and Jupiter, so also between these Magnets which partake of their natures. The common martial Magnet guided Christophorus Columbus to America, that new World abounding with Gold and Silver, besides many other profitable Commodites, but all this in a way hazardous and full of danger, many thousands having lost their lives as well by Sea as by Land in endeavouring to obtain these riches. For Mars with his Magnet onely loads and perswades to War and Blood-shed, whereas the friendly and peace-loving Jupiter, with his benign Magnet stirs up none to evil but onely to good, and directs us to a Land much more abounding with Gold than America, whence we may fetch the same in peace and quiet without fear of War or Blood-shed, and to the glory of God make known his Works of wonder to the ignorant.

And thus much shall suffice to have spoken concerning the extracting or separating of Gold and Silver from Tin, and the easie extraction of Tinctures from Stones and Metals, by means of our secret Sal-Armoniack. Now for a Surplus, and to pleasure the Sons of Art, I’ll take one turn more in the Philosophick Garden and gather some fair Flowers, to make a Garland in honour of the Adepts, that they may wear it in remembrance of me. The first of these Flowers is the white Lilly, the second the blew Violet, and the third the deep Purple Amaranthus, being the chief that grow in our Garden, of which I intend to twist my Garland.

The first, viz. the white Lilly appears in the beginning of our Work; the blew Violet in the midst, and the deep red Amaranthus in the end of it. That I compare the beginning of our Work to a Lilly, is not without reason, forasmuch as our mercurial Water is whiter than white, being called of Philosophers a white, whiter than white, because though it be a white colour, yet it excells all other whites, with its glistring brightness so far, that other white colours compared with it look very dim and dark. And because God hath bestowed upon the Lilly such afair glistring white, as no Flower can compare with it, therefore we compare our mercurial Water (the beginning of our Work) for its unparallel’d whiteness to the Lilly of the Field: of which our Saviour himself saith, That Salomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of them. For this cause also the Philosophers always termed the beginning of their Work a white Flower, as appears (among other instances) from an inscription engraven on two Candlesticks, belonging to a Cloister in Westphalia, made by a Monk and dedicated to the use of the Altar there in these words, Non ex Auro, nec Argento sed ex primo Artis flore sum factum. I am not made of Gold nor Silver, but of the first Flower of Art. These Candlesticks are white as Silver, but heavy as Gold; which may pass for a profit that the white in our work is termed a Lilly or Flower.

And that this our bright white Lilly doth far surpass all other white Flowers whatsoever, the Philosophers in Turba witness when they say, our Salt exalts the whiteness in Silver and the red in Gold; which indeed is the very truth, though it be not believed by the unexperienced, because at first sight it seems against nature, that one colour should die both red and white: yet that it is so, I here witness unto with my Pen, and hope shortly to make an ocular demonstration of it to all that are lovers of the wonderfull Works of God. In the mean time we may prove it thus, dissolve in Aqua Fortis some fine cupell’d Silver, and in another Vessel in Aqua Regis some fine Gold, pour a little of our mercurial Water into each of the Solutions, and the Silver will fall to the bottom white as Snow; yea rather will be whiter than that or any other thing in the World: and the Gold will be precipitated red like blood, and the Stygian Waters are rob’d of all the Gold and Silver that was in them, by the addition of our secret Sal-Armoniack Water, so as not the least grain remains with them. Thus Perseus, viz. the exalted Gold, has deliver’d Andromeda, viz. the white exalted Silver, from the Sea-Monster, viz. the Aqua Fortis, and taken the same to his Wife, that is, radically united with it. And that our jovial Sal-Armoniack will do this, I hope e’re long to demonstrate to the lovers of Art.

The Blind World may learn from hence, it was not without reason the Philosophers affirm that their secret Salt, exalts the red in Gold and the white in Silver. And that their Salt is a Sal-Armoniack, appears from their crying, O our Sal-Armoniack! O our Sea! for had it been the common, how could they have call’d it theirs? Turba saith, If the Almighty had not created this Salt, it were impossible to compleat our Elixir: Which words are alledged by Arnoldus de Villa Nova, who saith that Almizadir (a name the Philosophers give their secret Salt) is a Sal-Armoniack, as appears from his own words taken out of his Breviary of Alchymical Books, being a Letter of his to a Pope of Rome.

“To the most holy Father, e’re I acquaint thee that first of all the bodies must be reduced to their first matter. To understand which, thou must know, that the matter of all Metals, and their Sperm is a white fume decocted and thickned in the Bowels of the Earth, by a sulphurous heat; and according to the varieties of this Sulphur, and its quantity in the earth, divers Metals are produced; the matter of them all being the same essentially, and differs onely accidently. Above all things it is certain, that the Workman can do nothing here without Salt, no more than an Archer can shoot without a string to his Bow. Morienus expresses this more clearly, when he saith, Take the Phlegmatick and Cholerick, and grind the Sanguine with it, untill it become a tinging Heaven, &c. The Phlegmatick is cold and moist, viz. Mercury, the Cholerick is hot and dry, viz. Sal-Armoniack, and the sanguine is hot and moist, viz. Gold. Observe that Sal-Armoniack doth not give Colour, but Ingress, and prepares the matter and purgeth it, and then the Spirit being united with the Body, it hath ingress, and having conjoin’d these, it goes off. For this Salt is an unctuous fatness coagulated by the dryness of the fire, of a hot and subtil dry nature, which penetrating through all parts, dissolves Bodies, and is the conjoiner of opposites, and of all Spirits with their Bodies. For this Salt is a volatile Spirit, a generating Stone, and a helper towards the production of the Elixir; because if this Salt were not, the Elixir could never be dissolved, nor have ingress, neither would one thing be join’d to another, or have ingress into another. It is volatile, and yet join’d with Bodies, it is a Body which is hid in it. And therefore Avicenna saith, If you put it, viz. this Salt, instead of Fire, Air, or Sulphur, you will not err in your work, because it inclines it self to every nature and Almizadir; that is, Sal-Armoniack will alone do thy business. And in the Book of Aloms and Salts ’tis said, that if God had not created this Salt, the Elixir could never be perfected, and the study of Alchymy would be in vain. He therefore that works without Salt (as the Allegory of the Wise Men hath it) does not attenuate the dead Bodies in their Graves, and therefore can never expect a resurrection, &c.”

From this Letter of Arnoldus it appears fully, that their secret Salt is a Sal-Armoniack, though not the common. Concerning which Salt the Philosophers express themselves very differently. Our Cosmopolita cries out, O our Sal-Armoniack! O our Sea! and teaches also the preparation of it, though very darkly, where he speaks of the little fish Remora, of which we are told, that it is able to stop a great Ship under Sail in her course; and we know our secret Sal-Armoniack has the force to stop the Ships richly laden with Gold and Silver, sailing in the Sea of Stygian Waters, and to lead them whither it lists; from whence it appears that our Jovial Sal-Armoniack is the true Remora of the Philosophers.

I proceed now to the second Flower, viz. the blew Violet, which is likewise found in our Garden. We have heard how by means of our Jovial Sal-Armoniack, the colour of Gold and Silver is exalted, after it hath attracted them out of the salt Sea, wherein they were dissolved. But if the Solutions of both Gold and Silver be pour’d together in one Glass, and some of our Magnet be put to them for to attract the same, then the Gold which before was Blood-red, and the Silver which was so white, do together constitute a Violet colour, which is the second Flower growing in our Garden.