It is said, Ora & Labora, Pray and Labour, according to which, let every Man live. Now you shall hear how the imperfect Metals, in a particular way, may be transmuted with great Profit, into perfect, and that very plainly without any reserve, for I have obtain’d it at length by much Consideration. And because my great Age, and several long Sicknesses keep me continually in Bed, and both Feet are as in the Grave, where I stand certainly expecting nothing else, but a happy departure out of this transitory Life, into a better, which passeth not away. So that I would by no means intermit to sing with the Swan before my end, a pleasant Song; which may rejoyce all the Lovers of Alchymy, if they will make themselves sharers of this Melody. For those who read what I here write, and yet give no Credit to it, nor put their hand to the Work, and finish it with diligence, they will reap no Profit by this my instruction. But those who understand my Writing, and work plainly after the Letter, provided they have but a little understanding in the Fire, will reap great Profit; yea, even great Riches by it. For I am plain without any reserve, so that if any should fail, the fault will not be mine, but must be imputed to the Workmans want of Skil; for I never in my Life sought to gain any thing by my Writing, neither will I now do it, but it sufficeth me if I do good to my Neighbour, out of Love, with that Talent which God hath given me. Whosoever is on Glauber’s side, and will participate of my good intention, he may, or let it alone, ’tis all one to me, for they are not all good Cooks that wear long Knives; the Art consisteth in Experience, and he that is but any thing skilled in Chymical Operations will do well enough, for all is laid plainly down before his Eyes. But on the contrary, the Covetous, Proud, and Lazy, who seek to be rich without labour and pains, will find every thing dark, and never attain to any thing profitable. For God will have it so, that not every Body shall be Rich, as Paracelsus very well expresseth it in his Book of Sulphur, when he saith, Many might be helped with a few Words, if it was not against the Will of God, for God will not have the Goats-tail equal the Cows in length, for else out of Pride he might with it beat out his own Eyes, and therefore it is better to be silent, that they may remain Poor. Thus Paracelsus. But I Glauber say, that it is better to lay down the Art in truth, without difference before all Men, for God keeps still his hand over it, and to whom he Wills it, he will give it, and to whom he will not give it, he knoweth how to cast a Mist before his Eyes, that he may not see the good, nor have power to apprehend it, but may wander about in darkness, with his proud and dull Head, till at length he fall into the Pit of the impious, and there perish without help. But that I may no longer detain the Lover of Art with my Discourses, but come at length to the Practice, I will in the Name of God here set down the whole Process as it is in it self, without any Reservation, and the whole business is thus.
Now followeth the true, and often practised Process, how to transmute Silver (as being yet not a perfectly mature Metal) by degrees, without any loss, totally into the highest perfection, that is to say, into good Gold abiding all Tryals. After the revealing of this Process, we shall also hear, how all the imperfect Metals, viz. ♄, ♃, ♂, and ☿ may after the same manner (but yet not totally, but only so far as they contain an incombustible Mercury,) be transmuted into good Gold and Silver. And after this Revelation, we will not omit to shew also, which way ☿ the most immature of all the Metals, may be transmuted, not only Particularly, but also Universally, into the highest Medicine, and the best Gold. But the later must thus be understood, that we may not cast Pearl before Swine, but that they may remain only among honest hearts, and not come into the hands of double-minded Men.
But now, to come to the Melioration of Silver, the ingenious must know, that Silver is naturally fixed in the Earth, and endures the fire, and therefore needs no Art to fix it; for it bears the Tryal of the Test, as well as Gold, wanting only Colour and Weight, which Nature hath not bestowed upon it, but may be procured by Art. As for the Colour, the secret Fire of the Wise can only make it perfect, for all Colours are absconded in the common Fire of Wood, and the Sun, as we daily see, that the Universally ripening Sun, brings all the Fruits of the Earth, from a Green and White, by its constant Beams, to Redness and Maturity. And we also see, that the common Fire, of Wood and Coals, makes Earths and Minerals which are White, become Red, as we see Crocus Martis, Minium, and other Colours which are produced out of Black, Gray, and White Metals and Minerals; as the highly illuminated Paracelsus hath sufficiently taught us, viz. that the common fire of Coals, by its own power and innate Nature, without any addition of other things, is perfectly able to graduate the white Metals, into Red, or yellow Gold, as you may see in his Book of Cements. If the common Wood-fire of it self doth this, what cannot the Fire of the wise effect, which was always kept in the greatest Secrecy? Especially, if one know how to add a graduating Metallick Species, as Mars, Venus, and Antimony, and the like, after a spiritual manner, to the secret Fire; which is the way to give to white Silver, a constant Redness.
As for the weight of Silver, it may, in like manner as the Colour be given to Silver by Art, so that it shall be equal with Gold in weight: Which introduction of Colour and weight into ☽, the Philosophers have called closing of its Pores. For this is certain, that if any light Metals are melted together, that one filleth up the Pores of the other, and both come out of the Fire more compact and heavy, than they were before. For example: Take half an Ounce of Red Copper, and as much of good Tin, melt these together, and pour them out into a Bullet-mould, and you will see, that they will not be much more in Magnitude than one of them was before; for one Bullet of ♀ and one of ♃ may almost be put into the same Mould: From whence it appears, that one Metal hath an ingress into the other, and mends, and augments it in its weight and Colour; but what those Metals are which give weight and colour to Silver, you may easily guess. Nothing can tinge, but what is naturally Coloured, and nothing can better give weight, than what is naturally heavy: In which, ☿ and ♄ have the Preheminency, but in introducing Colour, Mars, Venus, and Antimony excel. But which way this introduction of colour and weight, into light and white Silver, is to be done, the following Process will teach.
But this the Ingenious ought to know, that it is no Art at all, that if the Iron made Red, and ☿ and ♄ made White, be mixed with ☽, yet they will not render it durable, red and heavy: But the Corroding ♄ will quite take away the Redness and Whiteness upon the Cupel: For what is not purged from all combustible Sulphur, cannot Sustain the Cupel, but will vanish with Saturn, and turn into Scoriæ: And seeing that we know, that ♂ and ☿ contain abundance of superfluous combustible Sulphur, and also that their incombustible Sulphur is not yet fixed enough, to refill the Corroding ♄ upon the Cupel, and therefore with him must vanish and come to nothing, for all that is able to abide the Cupel must be separated from all combustible Sulphur. Now we know, that ♂ and ☿ are not so, and therefore cannot abide the Cupel. For ♂ if he be made Red, and cast upon Silver, he doth not remain Red with it, but so much as enters the Silver, again becomes black Iron, and therefore can give no Colour to the Silver; and also ☿ flies away, and so leaves no weight to the Silver: Which Paracelsus hath sufficiently described in his Cœlum Philosophorum. So that if one melt unfixed Metals with Gold and Silver, and keep them together never so long in the Fire, yet notwithstanding the unfixed Metals, cannot be made fixed by the Gold and Silver, but every of them would again be found in the Examen, as they were before. But if one Metal should make the other better, they ought to be spiritually conjoyned, and so the Spirit of one Metal will improve the other. For all Philosophers testifie, that the Metals must first be reduced to their first Matter, that is, they must be brought into a spiritual being, before they can be transmuted into more Noble, by Art. But which way all Metals are to be spiritualized, and brought to their first Matter, is taught in my Treatise of the Three Principles of Metals, lately published, as also in the Seventh part of my Pharmacopæa Spagyrica, and its Appendix. Now if one would Meliorate, or improve, the imperfect Metals, the imperfect combustible Sulphur must first be Separated from them, that only the purest and incombustible part, viz. the incombustible Sulphur may remain; which may be done by several ways; as by Distillation, and Rectification, and also by Adustion, and Combustion, in which nothing perisheth, but the combustible and unprofitable part: But the incombustible Oyl still remains, and doth not perish by the Fire; and also by Solutions, Distillations and Rectifications, all the unprofitable Feces of the Metals are separated, and there remains only the clean Quintessence of the Metals, which are separated and advanced into a concentrated Medicine. This Separation of the unprofitable and combustible Sulphur, from the incombustible, as Old Philosopher hath notably expressed in these Verses.
Est impossibile, Sulphur sine Flamma delere,
Calcis adustibile, quod præstat fossa Mineræ.
Sulphur impure, we can’t blot out,
Till Circling Flames play round about
Our Oars and Calces; for then they