Hermetic and Alchemical Writings (Coelum Philosophorum, Aurora of the Philosophers, Concerning the Nature of Things, ...)

When, then, the three primals have completed their effect in the metallic star — as when, in the star of the sun, a composition has been formed of the Mercury of the sun with the solar Sulphur and Salt, then they are digested into a perfect metal, by Adech, who shapes therefrom the form of his own gift. Then at length the star throws off its efflux, warm and liquefied, as if from some furnace. This is shaken in falling, is coagulated in the cold, and lights upon the globe. In the same way, also, the star of the moon makes a composition of Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt. When these are brought to their effect (just as in the case of the sun) it casts them forth. The same thing takes place with Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter. It must be remarked, however, that out of the seven kinds of the seven stars, each one embraces the three primals of one metal ; not as in the element of water, where in one Ares the seven are latent. The names of the seven metals, therefore, bear reference to the seven metals not of the earth but of the stars. In the same way, too, many liquids fall down from the stars, being not yet m a state of coagulation. If the earth be moistened with these, a brightness rises thence like cachimise, talcs, and sometimes marcasites, though it does not fully and perfectly arise from any of these, nor perfectly bears reference to the same. Hence it will be inferred that the superior metals excel those of the lower earth by many degrees, in goodness, in purity, and in nature, and so in all respects deserve greater praise.

Concerning Stones from Above.* In the same way there are also other stars which cast forth from themselves gems, granates, and other forms of stones. For Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury in the element of fire possess a powerful force for generating gems. There are many stars which consist of ruby Sulphur, many of sapphire Salt, and many which are powerful in emerald Mercury. There are also stars which contain the primals of copper, vitriol, salt, or alum. Hence, many of this kind appear rainy. If these are prepared they manifest themselves. From these stars are generated sapphires of lazurium. There, Salt is the body, solidly coagulated with pure Sulphur and with the spirit of Mercury. In the emerald Mercury is the body, having the nature but not the body of copper. It has its colour but not its body from copper. In this way, all the colours of gems which proceed from fire are found in proportion to the nature and condition of the three primals which are found united in the ratio of colours in the metals. For instance, in copper there is redness. But these three primals, if they have not a metallic body, become green. So, from silver, if the metallic body be wanting, lazurium is produced ; from iron, a red body ; from lead, the same ; from Jupiter, a clay-coloured one mixed with white ; from gold, a purple body ; from mercury, one that is saffron-coloured.

In like manner, also, if only the Salt predominates, it produces various colours, such as are conspicuous in certain stones, purple or blue, either lightly or deeply impressed. Equally, too, that which comes only from Mercury is marked by many colours, saffron, red, etc. That which is from Sulphur has for its prevailing colours, white, red, saffron, black, coerulean, and so on. These stones are very rare, and those which are of a metallic nature are exceedingly precious. Thus, the emerald is a copper stone ; the carbuncle or jasper is a golden stone ; the ruby and chalcedony are iron stones ; the sapphire lazurius is a silver stone ; the white sapphire is a stone of Jupiter ; the jacinth is a mercurial stone. After this manner, then, stones are generated in their own stars, which closely adjoin the planets, and then are ejected, just as metals are ejected, and so are found in the ftiest parts of the earth, according to the ratio of their generation.

* In the height of the firmament stand the three principles from which impressions arise. These are so high and so lofty that we cannot behold their form, and yet they have a form. We see, however, the green which is their colour. Hence it is gathered that in the element of fire generations of stone also take, place. But where stones are generated they fall. Although this be considered wonderful, rare, and unheard of, it more frequently happens in the sea than with us. The generations of these -stones take place as follows. If the principles of thunderbolts are present, any number of thunderbolts may be generated, for with every peal there is a stone. The matter of such stones exists first of all in an aerial condition, and is afterwards coagulated into an earthy one, so that the air can retain them no longer, and they ultimately fall to the earth. Furthermore, the matter of these stones may collect into one place in the absence of any tempest, but it will remain aerial until it comes in contact with a contrary nature, when it will at once begin to coagulate and to fall, even as a cloud is precipitated downward in the form of rain.— /^?V,

Concerning Crystals and Beryls. Of crystals and beryls it should be known that they are generated from the snowy stars, which produce snow, in the following manner : In the snowy stars, the power of congelation is so strong that sometimes they are of a double nature ; that is, one and the same star contains within it both snow and congelation, and so becomes twofold. Now, a star of this nature, which has gained at the same time the power of congealing and also of producing snow, easily generates the crystal, the citrine, and the beryl. For, if snow falls, and frost accompanies it, and, moreover, a place be given to him on the globe where Boreas predominates, while the sun or the solar nature does not prevail strongly, then the water which is in combination with the snow is coagulated into a stone. Now, if this water is caught by an intense frost midway, while the snow is falling, stones are formed from it before they fall on the globe. Thus, large or small granules are found in proportion as the frost has caught the snow in falling. But, if this seizing has not been so sudden, the frost collects and drives together all the water contained in the snow, which, however, is not itself snow, into one centre towards the bottom of the earth, and when it is massed there, coagulates it into ice. This, however, does not again liquefy like other frozen bodies, nor is it dissolved, and that because it is derived from snow-water.

Other waters, it is true, which are frozen, are partly snowy, but the snow is dissolved with them. Here, this should not take place, but the water is extracted from the snow. The fact that the snow remains, happens only through the snowy star, wherein, also, the power of congelation subsists, so, that, wherever they meet in one place on the earth, the snow is not liquefied, but goes on to the end of the intention or operation. In snows of this kind are produced stones, such as crystals and the like, pure and dark together, for this reason, because S.S. of Mercury and Salt have clarified and purified themselves. Very often, too, crystals, beryls, and citrines of this sort, are found in places which are not snowy. The reason of this is, that they have been coagulated in the higher regions and have fallen down in that form. They are nothing but coagulated snow-water. But their shape and species and angularity are bestowed upon that in proportion as the Salt in them exists in a subtle or a dense state. ,

Concerning the Element of Earth.

Concerning the Earth, Per Se. TO philosophise concerning the element of earth, its matter was first made on the following principle : Its three primals were separated, as if out of the great Iliaster, from the two primal elements into another form and nature, so that in the beginning not only the element of earth, but the element of water was segregated, and these were afterwards joined together into one globe, which is the centre of the exterior elements. From these two elements, first the earth was completed, afterwards the water. But concerning the earth, it should be known that all the force and nature which lay hid in the Great Iliaster for nourishing not only man, but cattle, by means of food and other necessaries, were collected into the element of earth, and consisted of all trees, herbs, and other growths. But they were so divided from the other three elements that this virtue exists in the element of earth alone, and not in any other element. Therefore this Iliaster is peculiar to the element of earth so as to afford aliment. For this cause the earth is called, and is, an element, because therein consist all the force and power of nourishing things which are due to living beings.

""1 These three — Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury — are the earth, taken out of the great Iliaster, out of that nature which is the element of earth. For there the element and the three others were one Iliaster, in which the four elements existed. They were, however, divided one from the other, and the Iliaster was divided. Nevermore, then, can the four elements from henceforth be joined or stand together, but each subsists separately by itself in its own place. Those, therefore, labour in vain who endeavour to separate the four elements, or to seek besides these a fifth essence, From these three primals, disjoined from the other elements, was the matter of the earth produced, in such form as it now is and is seen. And as the air was made heaven, the fire, the firmament, the water, the sea, etc., so did separation bring- it about that this element should pass into matter and end in a globular form, and that in it should be included all the virtues of trees, herbs, fungi, so that from it should be procreated in the world all those genera which had been silently sown and had lain hid within it.

In this element of earth was hidden the seed of wood, of roots, of herbs, of fungi, and also the force whereby the stem rises, and is formed and planted according to the will and pleasure of its cultivator. The seed is here invisibly proceeding from the nature of the element, which alone is that seed, as the abode and seat of the same, in which it is elaborated and prepared. But originally that force is separated into its own genus, so that the two do not remain joined in one, but each genus exists solely and separately, one in wood, a second in the herb, a third in fungus. Each of these, again, passes separately, this into cedar, that into anthos, this, again, into balsam, and that into botin.* Of herbs, too, one passes into meligia, another into a lily with thorns — and so with the rest. But in order that this seed may be rightly understood according to its distribution, it should be remarked that in the separation of the great Aniadus the nature of trees was collected into one place, botin into a second, and ebony into a third. So, too, with others. Equally, too, the great Aniadus so disposed of herbs that into one portion of earth was cast grass, into a second trefoil, and into a third lavendula. For so to each land is given its own herb, and its own tree. We should pay attention to what has been the distribution made by the Aniadus.

As to why the Aniadus thus fell among trees so that in one soil should be produced the orange, in a second the plum, in a third the fig, and in a fourth acorns, the cause may be supposed to have been that the fig and the orange require their soil to be of a peculiar kind which should be favourable to their increase, just as they also require an appropriate climate. If now the * In the botin, the pine, and the fir, there exist two kinds of sulphur — one passes away into coagulation, the other is separated therefrom, and is not coagulated. From the sulphur which is susceptible of coagulation, the wood of the trees is prepared, and the same abounds in salt. It is owing to this sulphur that wood burns, and it goes on burning so long as there is sulphur in it. Whatsoever remains is salt, and this is in the form of ashes. And that truly is salt which the sulphur in trees coagulates into wood, whence glass is made. For salt is fluid. And this glass is the ultimate matter of any salt of wood whatsoever. But the other sulphur which is not susceptible of coagulation gives terebinth, resin of the fir and pine, which inheres chiefly in the wood, and by reason of its subtlety penfetrates through the pores outside the bark, either by liquefaction or by a natural resolution. The sulphur which is in botin is more subtle than the sulphurs of the fir or pine, while that of the pine is more subtle than that of the fir.

But all three are of one generation, proceeding from the Aniadus, which is united through Mercury. The bark is nothing else but sulphur coagulated after the manner of resin, and it is educed into this form by the Aniadus. For it is a hard congealed sulphur. And as there is no outside in any body without hardness, so is the bark formed from the hardest parts of the sulphur which exists in a growing thing. The branches, the shoots, etc., as also the fruits, proceed, in like manner, from the Aniadus, and derive their special form and character therefrom. This is to be understood also concerning other trees. — De Elemento Terra, Tract II., Tex I,

soil be unsuitable and the climate ill-adapted, the one fruit or the other cannot emerge, but its seed of necessity perishes and never bursts forth. For though it be present there and lie in the earth, it is, nevertheless, dried up by the climate and oppressed by the unfavourable constitution of the soil, which is varied by the variety of the climate, not by its ovi^n nature. For the soil is everywhere one ; but variety and change accrue to it from the climate, which either encourages or impedes the growths themselves. The sun burns up the genus of lilies, or some other genus ; but this rarely happens, for the seed is ready to hand, which Nature produces from the tree or flower. This material seed is the cause why the sun cannot burn up the whole genus of this or that flower or tree, but allows it to come to a condition of vigour : unless perchance it. happens that the force of the sun is less than suffices for fertility. Thus in the work of planting, herbs and trees are produced which, on account of the aforesaid defect in the soil, would not otherwise be forthcoming.

But we must proceed with our philosophy of the earth. The fruits proceeding from the element of earth are twofold. The earth either produces them of itself or by means of seed. In this way all growths are produced by the element out of the soil in two ways ; that is to say, either from the proper seed of the soil, or from seed entrusted to the earth. The proper seed is when the earth puts forth a herb which springs from itself. Seed that is sown is foreign and not proper. Here the gifts of herbs are twofold. Neither spelt, nor wheat, nor lily, nor pear-tree, nor anything of this kind, grows spontaneously out of the earth, but all have to be sown. Here the philosophy of this treatise is deep, to find out whence come those seeds which do not issue from the earth itself. If neither spelt nor wheat be sown, none of these things will be produced. But herbage and grass do grow. Herbage and grass, therefore, are growths of the earth itself, not like apple trees and cherry trees. So there remains another philosophy by which we learn whence are produced spelt, whence apple trees and pear trees. You must know that the seeds of all these growths are propagated from Paradise, sown outside it, then planted and cultivated far and wide. These fruits of Paradise come to be understood in the same way as we understand that Christ was God and yet a mortal man.

As to the method whereby the seed passes into its shoot, it must be known that the seed takes from the earth nothing more than its increment and formative power. The other is from Paradise, and is taught in the Paramirum.* But as to how much of an element is taken from the earth, * Every seed is threefold ; that is, the seed is one, but three substances exist and grow therein. But even as the seed appears one, so are these three to be understood as one only. Every individual thing is united in its seed and not divided, but the same is a conjunction of unity. An illustration may be taken from trees, which have their barlt their wood, and their roots, which are distinct in themselves, and yet co-exist in a single ze^i.— Paramirum Lib. II., c. I. ' that may be understood from the fact that in the beginning the three primals of the earth mix with the seed, so that it tends towards the end destined for it, and becomes that which it is before. For the seed is that which is of itself, but not yet manifested. Out of this proceeds first the root ; from this, afterwards, the stalk. From the root and stalk issue forth the branches. From these three burst out the leaves. After this appear the flowers and fruits. This shoot or growth is formed by the great Aniadus, and is like a man.

It has its skin, which is the bark. It has its head and hair, which are the root. It has its figure, its signs, its mind, its sense in the stalk, the lesion whereof is followed by death. Its leaves and flowers and fruit are for ornament, as in man hearing, vision, and the power of speech. Gums are its excrement, and the parasite is its disease. Philosophise as we will about its growth, this is nothing more than its Aniadic nature, which arranges all forms and directs them into their essence for which they were created. Its death and passing away are the period of its years. A pear-tree will stand for ten or twenty years. After that time it dies. Thus a shoot or a tree growing in the earth dies according to the time appointed for its death. Its decay is the element of fire. That is, fire destroys wood, leaves, grass. Whatever is left in the field decaying and passing into rottenness is consumed by the sun and the movement of the galaxy, so that it is no more left on the earth than as though it had n-ever grown there, as happens to wood in the fire. Thus are growing things consumed and eaten away so that no relic remains, but all are removed like dust. The very remnants are so dispersed by a strong wind that not a fragment survives and remains at the expiration of a year.

Since, then, trees, herbs, corn, and vegetables are produced out of the earth, the power of this element should before all else be learnt : because some growing things are food and aliment, as vegetables and fruits ; others are drink, as grapes and berberis ; others purge the body, like turbith, hellebore, and colocynth ; others strengthen it, as cinnamon, carraways, mace ; others have their virtue in the root, as parsnip and gentian ; others in the leaves, as pot-herbs and cabbage ; others in the flowers, as ox-tongue ; others in the fruits, as apples, pears, etc. ; others in the seeds, as pepper, nuts, and the like. Now, it is worth while to know how all these things take place. It is the Aniadus of the Earth who thus distributes them. The nutrimental virtues he arranges in three parts, the seed, the roots, the extremities. Thus the apple is a fruit on the tree because the Aniadus thrusts it forth, and shapes the fruit into the form of an apple, or a pear, or a fig, etc. In the nucleus is a species of seed, as in wine there is a species of drink. So, then, the Aniadus, before man, operates the first preparation, and man directs the second for his own convenience. After these, whatever is of a laxative nature degenerates into another growth, as into the mountain brook-willow, the rhabarbarus, or

hermodactylos. Whatever is of a sweet nature passes into sugar, foenograecum, liquorice root and flowers. Hence it is that pears and figs derive their sweetness, and bees their honey. Bitterness turns to amarissima, warmth to pepper and grains of Paradise, coolness into nenuphar and camphor. For as in the element of fire everything by itself is divided from another, so also the virtue of the element of earth is divided to its own growth. And yet it often happens that two or three natures link in a single substance. So in cassia there are heat, sweetness, and a laxative nature. In mace there are odour, goodness, and strengthening power. Such is the case with many others, and yet one does not on that account destroy the other. In the same way the power of the element of the earth either makes for health, as in the tare, in persica and gamandria : or it is of a consolidating nature, as in the comfrey and the red artemisia : or in the odour, as in the lily of the valley and narcissus : or in its stench, as in the dane-wort. These are all either produced from the Aniadus, or distributed for the use of those who live on the earth. In this way the mighty gifts are learnt, just as the virtues of the elements which have flowed down from the great Iliaster.

* As out of the element of earth trees pass off into wood, so in the same element there is a certain sulphur which can be separated and passes off into food. Of this kind are vegetables and cereals. Dry and humid sulphurs are united, being the three principles duplicated according to nature and essence. One of these is for use, the other is not. Thus the avena is sulphur, but it is not edible. The seed, however, is edible. The non-esile sulphur is first of all developed into stalk, etc., and subsequently the esile sulphur is collected into the grains of the cereal. — De EUmento Terra, Tract III., Text I.

Concerning the Element of Water with its Fruits.

CONCERNING the element of water, the first things to be considered are : What is its origin, into what divisions it is broken up, and what the element is per se. The element of water is a seed from Yle, bringing forth stalks and fruits, that is, water, and its fruits, such as stones and metals of various kinds. Concerning the seed of the element of water, it must be laid down that it is latent in its workshop, just as seed lies in the soil. From this workshop proceed the stalk and its branches and fruits, in this way. Out of this seed is produced the stalk, breaking out of the soil into the light, whilst it remains lying in the earth. For, as the element of earth bears its fruit in the body of chaos, so, in like manner, the earth is a body, which sustains growing things such as trees and fruits from the tree of the element of water. There is no element but requires a body by which it may be^_ sustained. Chaos bears impressions. The element of fire sustains the fruits of the earth, the earth bears up the fruits of water, the water those of the air. Thus, the fruits of each element are borne by some other element. Now, as from the seed of the element issues its tree, so its tree is a flowing stream, distributed throughout the whole earth. All things are one tree, with one origin, one root, from one stalk.

And the streams of the whole globe are the branches of this one stalk. All the humour of the whole globe is Abrissach, which falls down from the branches of this tree, and pervades all the pores of the globe with its distillation. For, as the fragments from the fir-trees fall down from above to the earth, so these branches from the water fall down into the hollows of the earth. In this way takes place the generation of the element of water. All the water and all its fruits come forth from the element of water ; but they are not the element itself. The element itself is never seen, by any, and yet, nevertheless, there is an element of water. From it emanates nothing but water. It is called an element on account of the water and its fruits, not on account of its own complexion and quality, just as is the case with the other elements.

But concerning its course and goal, as also its seats and termini, the truth is, that the tree has its exit and end of itself, rises and falls, is produced and perishes. Thus, all water that flows forth from it is new, not old, and was never before seen. For, as the element of water lies in the middle of the globe, so, the branches run out from the root in its circuit on all sides towards the plains and towards the light. From this root very many branches are born. One branch is the Rhine, another the Danube, another the Nile, etc. So, there are also smaller branches, all born out of that root which rises from the seed, whence proceeds the element of water. And all the stalks belong to one tree, which is born of the root along a triple line in the circle of the outer firmament of the two elements, fire and air. So, then, the tree is distributed by this triple line over the universal globe, tending towards the light. So the stalk and its branches grow out from the centre of the globe until they reach the two external elements where the line ends. It does not go on to its own body, or Yliadum. For, unless the Yliadum were so placed in that position, every tree would spring right up to the sky, extending itself further outside the earth than from above, where it is fixed in the earth.

So, neither do the fruits of the element of the earth grow farther than to the prescribed limit of the Yliadum, which is the lower chaos of the earth, not occupying more of the earth than the height to which growing things rise. Chaos, therefore, is twofold. That which is above is the chaos in which fire is sustained ; and, unless the Yliadum were opposed, the element of earth would extend its fruits to the mid heaven. So, too, the element of water. The course and progress of the stalk of the tree is, that it goes on to its Yliadum above the plain of the earth, where its height ends. But how far it extends since it lies in its Yliadum, this must be sought from philosophy, because all the branches reach their Yliadum in the sea, where they all meet. For, as there is one root, so is it compelled to reach one summit or canopy, which is the sea. The sea itself is of itself neither the stalk nor the tree, but, as it were, the canopy of the stalk, which is not first or proximately born from the root, but composed of the branches. Why it is salt, is on account of its position and because salt waters flow together into it, as will hereafter be shewn where we speak about the subject of salts. The cause of its ebb and flow is that all the fruits (or the humours) flow down by night, but by day they swell to a height, that is, clissus. And this clissus in water is the same as in other fruits, increasing and decreasing, going and returning.

Now, since it is well to know all these things, so their death, that is their consumption, should be understood. Nothing is free from this consumption. It should be understood, then, that everything, when it comes to its Yliadum, is subject to putrefaction and is consumed. Putridity is a kind of consumption, and the passing away of that thing to which it appertains so that it is consumed just as if it had never existed. This is the operation of its nature. As Nature produces things, so does she again remove them. As the thing proceeds from nothing, so it returns to nothingness again. Hence it is clear that the element of water itself is subject to putrefaction or corruption. If it comes to its canopy, that is, to the sea, it grows putrid and is consumed of itself, no extraneous agency being accessory thereto, but through its own nature and arrangement. As the fire consumes and extinguishes itself, so, in like manner, does the water. This is the way, then, in which the tree of the element of water and its branches are distributed. What fruits lie hid in it remain to be seen, as also concerning their nature and the generation of the outgrowths. The nature and property of this element is that some of its fruits it bears within itself, others it casts out, and some it altogether throws away. It must also be separately learnt concerning this in how many modes of nature and essence its effluents and streams arise. But in order that all things born of water may be understood in its death, it should be realised that the branches, but not the fruits, pass away to their canopies. Concerning the death of fruits it should tje said that they all flow into Drachum. In that hour they are consumed, as lastly it should be understood and held on the subject of Drachum.

By way of simplifyng any study concerning the origin of fruits, we will consider that the following are the fruits of the element of water :* — Salts, minerals, gems, and stones. There are, therefore, four kinds of growths out of the seed of the element of water, in this way. Sweet water is the stalk. Afterwards its nature is manifold In the matrix. One matrix is of salt, one of minerals, one of gems, and, lastly, one of stones. t Each of these, again, is divided in a different way. For instance, there are three fruits of salt— salt, vitriol, and alum. And each of these has many genera ranged under It. There are many kinds of salt, many of vitriol, many of alum. J Some are metals, some marcasites, some cachlmlag. But even these, again, singly, admit of more kinds. There are seven metals, nine marcasites, twelve « The fruits of water are born from the seed of Ares. Archeus, who is the separator of the elements and of all things which lie in them, divides one thing from the other, and collocates it into its place. In the seed of the element of water Archeus removes everything, and ordains it into its Nedeon, for the Vliadum of the earth, separates the germsof salt from all other natures, and in like manner the germs of sweet water and things which are of an acid quality. When he has divided these things and educed them into Nedeon, the operation of Nedeon goes on into Yliadum, together with its maturation to which it is ordained.— Z>tf Etemento Aguee, s. v. De Generibus Salium^ c. i.

t Metals, minerals, and stones, while they are all generated out of water, do yet owe their development and perfection to the element of earth. There is a twofold corruption of these substances— one which results from a too prolonged connection with the foreign element, and the proper corruption which takes place in their own element, even as the fruit at last passes into putrefaction on its own tree. — De Naturaiibus Aquis^ Lib. III. % For example, the origin of vitriol, as also of alum, is as follows. For as salt is extracted solely according to its own essence, so also are separated vitriol and alum. But the form which is manifested in salt, even as in vitriol and alum, is known from this, that all the fruits of the element of water are minerals, and share the nature of metals. But from all those things which arise out of salts, none is more akin to mineral virtue than vitriol, because the salts are minerals, and all minerals lie hidden in one mass and Ares. But vitriol is the ultimate in the separation of minerals. It is followed as closely as possible by the separation of metals, of which Venus is the first. Hence vitriol adheres to the nature of Venus. It is partly salt and partly mineral. So in every vitriol there is copper, and by reason of this

cachimiEe. So in turn every metal by itself is manifold : as fixed gold and not fixed, fixed silver and not fixed, and Venus is both copper and zinc. Such also is the case with the others. So there is a vast variety of marcasites and cachimiae. As to their origin and progress, their autumn and the rest— as, for example, their harvest and ingathering — suffice it to say that all the fruits proceeding from the element of water are divided into their branches and trees. So salt has its own mode of egress, together with sweet waters, even to the boundary of its Yliadum. The same is the case with the rest. But with regard to their division and separation, all such fruits consist of one root, out of which each nature is separately born according to its condition. So from one seed is born one tree, and in -this the wood, the bark, the fruit, the leaves are all separate, yet all are but one tree. So also from one root innumerable fruits are produced, but each fruit passes to its own Yliadum and triple line, as the founder has arranged. If, therefore, the distribution proceeds in this way, from Yle into its own stalk, and fruit is produced after its kind, then different things are found proceeding from the element of water — on one stalk salt, on a second a mineral, on a third something else. As, therefore, in the earth every seed produces its own fruit, so the seed of water is the seed of numberless things springing forth from it. Now, if these are brought to their Yliadum, and await their autumn-tide, then at length the autumn and harvest come for the fruit of every branch, which fruit is in itself of this autumn-tide and this generation.

metallic affinity vitriolic salt is of venereal nature. Copper, in like manner, is combined with vitriol. Indeed, its generation instructs us that it is wholly vitriol. At the same time vitriol in itself remains a salt, and derives its body from the liquor of the metals. For this reason it acquires a certain fiery quality and brilliancy. Alumen, on the other hand, by no means has affinity with metals, but is a free salt, consisting solely of acetosity, and having a body which is devoid of earthy quality, unlike vitriol, which arises solely from a permixture of metallic bodies. Hence it exhibits a similitude with marcasites and cachimiEe, which come forth in the first generation of metals. The medium which unifies and conglutinates copper with vitriol is a phlegma. — De Etemento AqucE^ s. v. De Getieridus Saliutn, Here ends the Philosophy of the Generation of Elements. [In the Geneva folio of 1658, which is by far the largest, as it is also the best, collected edition of the works of Paracelsus, there are many treatises included which conspicuously overlap each other ; and further, there are many treatises, independent in themselves, which are devoted to precisely the same subjects. For example, the Philosophia Sagax occupies, and at equal length, a similar ground to the Explicatio Totius Astronomies, and the latter is substantially identical with another astronomical interpretation included in this translation. It is much after the same manner that the Economy 0/ Minerals corresponds to the Liber Mineralitim , but, having regard to the metallurgical importance which, from the Hermetic standpoint, attaches to both these works, it has been thought well to include in an appendix the treatise which here follows.]

SINCE I have considered well beforehand, and come to the resolution of writing about minerals in general, all that relates to minerals, and everything bearing on the generation and nature of minerals, I would have you know before all else, that not a few persons have the priority of myself in publishing on the origin of minerals. When I read their works, I V found that they were involved in many errors. As far as one can judge from! v^'t their writings, they have never fully understood what the ultimate matter was. 1 Now, if the ultimate matter be not understood, what, pray, will happen to the first matter ? Whoever can describe the beginning will probably be certain about the end and ultimate. What is a theologian who is ignorant of the end ? What is an astronomer who is full of boasting, indeed, but without experience of light? Since, then, these authors are detected as in a state of hallucination about the end, that is, the ultimate matter, how will they be more worthy of credit about the beginning? I repudiate their writings and their letters ; this is not the foundation. But, in order that you may have proof positive in a short space as to my possessing much greater dexterity for writing about this matter than those my predecessors had, I will first of all explain to you the ultimate matter of minerals, so that you may plainly know on what basis I treat this subject, and hence may more rightly understand

what is the beginning. It is necessary that a physician should first be famiUar with the disease with which he has to deal ; when he knows this, the method of treatment will spontaneously unfold itself. But to know a disease is the end, not the beginning. The art resides in the departure, not in the entrance. The entrance is dark and dubious ; the issue is evident. In this knowledge lies hid. I point out this, therefore, as the foundation, namely, that every matter must be thoroughly known at its commencement, so that it may also be more exactly understood for what purpose the matter has been framed. Now, if man ought to lay out before himself the works of God, and rightly use them, it is necessary that they should not be hidden from him ; otherwise he will be sure to abuse them. What good is an axe to a person who is ignorant of its purpose ? Let him hand it over to one who knows all about it. In the same way, whatever God has created ought to be in the hands of a man who knows how he ought to employ it. Men should know and learn these things, not mere trifles and phantoms conjured up by the devil.

But when I propose to write about the origin of minerals, I shall do this not of myself, but from my experience, and by means of him from whom I myself received it. What I said in my first paragraph, I here repeat, namely, that the last must be known before the first, and Trom the last the first should be understood. I make this clear from the example of Christ, who was hot understood until He sent the Holy Spirit, who, at His coming, revealed all things. By Him we understand Christ, though He came after Christ. So, from the same ultimate, that is, by the Holy Spirit, we now understand both the Father and the Son. -—^ Now this fits in exactly with the philosophy of minerals, because the ultimate matter is made up of those things which teach the beginning of their , mother, or of their birth. From them this birth must be understood. Already j in other philosophic paragraphs I have named these three substances, Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, as being the principle of all those things which spring from four matrices, that is, the four elements. In the generation of minerals it is necessary to explain that iron, steel, lead, emerald, sapphire, flint, duelech, etc., are nothing else than Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. Everything produced by Nature is frail and corruptible, and it can be ascertained by Art from what it has issued forth.

And here is a proof from Nature, since those three substances just spoken of are in the air, no less than in other things, such as fire, balsam, mercury, etc. If, by the aid of Art you resolve steel, gold, pearls, or corals, you will still find Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. When these are extracted by Art, nothing more of that mineral remains, but all is dissolved. Seeing, then, that the dissolution of substances reveals particularly what they are, and what is in them, you can gather that those things are three, namely. Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. These three are the body, and everywhere there is one body and three substances. Concerning these three substances I will now begin my teaching, by which you may know that in the ultimate matter there are three substances, neither more nor fewer, and out of these three all

minerals have been formed. Furthermore, how God created Nature shall also be stated. On this basis nothing shall be found lacking. In the beginning it pleased God to make one element — water — whereinto He infused the power of generating minerals, so that they might forthwith grow, and thus adapt themselves to human needs. Water, I say. He destined for this office, that it should be the Matrix of the Metals, by means of these three substances spoken of— namely. Fire, Salt, and Mercury. In this arrangement so much foresight and discrimination were observed that from the one element of water were produced metals, gems, stones, and all minerals. And though the fruit be unlike its parent, so God willed that each should be produced according to its own nature. One is a bird of the air, another a fish in the water. And just as these differ one from the other, so do the natures of other created things. All these depend on the power of God, who willed that His good pleasure should be fulfilled in them. Now, it should first of all be realised that the element of water is the mother of all minerals, though water itself is utterly unlike these. So also is the earth related to wood, though earth is not wood. Nevertheless, wood comes from it. In the same way, stone, iron, etc., are from water. Water becomes that which of itself it is not. It becomes earth, which it is not. So is it necessary for man also to become that which he is not. Whatever is destined to pass into its ultimate matter must necessarily differ from its beginning. The beginning is Of no avail.

Now, in water is the primal matter, namely, the three first substances. Fire, Salt, and Mercury. These have certain different natures in them, as will hereafter be pointed out. They have metals, they have gems, they have stones, they have flints, and many things of this kind. One is a metal, another a stone, another a flint. So in the sky, too, one is snow, another thunder, another the rainbow, another lightning. In like manner on earth, too, one thing is wood, another a herb, another a flower, and another a fungus. Such an artificer has God shewn Himself, the Master of all things, whose works no one is able to rival. He alone is in all things. He is the primal matter of all : He is the ultimate matter. He is all things. Then, when we come in due succession to explain minerals, we will, in the ensuing discourse, speak before all else concerning the properties of the matrix, that is, the element of water. The things whereof I write were supposed by the ancients to spring from the earth. Their meaning was good; but the position was incapa ble of proof. In this point they were defective, as also in the materials for establishing that proof.

The principle, then, was first of all with God, that is, the ultimate matter. He reduced this ultimate matter into primal matter. It is just in the same way as the fruit, which is to produce other fruit, has seed. The seed is in the primal matter. So in the case of minerals, the ultimate matter is reduced to the primal, as in the case of seed. The seed here is the element of water. God determined that there should be water. Then He conferred upon it, besides this nature, that it should produce the ultimate matter, which is in water. This water He subjects to special preparation. That which is metallic He separates into metals and arranges each metal separately by itself. That which belongs to gems He also digested into its own nature. That which is stony in like manner. The same is the case with marcasites and other species. Moreover, if God created time — harvest for the corn and autumn for the fruits — He also appointed its own special autumn for the element of water, so that there might be a certain harvest and definite autumn for all things. So, too, the water is an element, is the matrix, the seed, the root of all minerals. The Archeus is he who in Nature disposes and arranges all things therein, so that everything may be reduced to the ultimate matter of its nature. From Nature man takes these things and reduces them to their ultimate matter.

That is, where Nature ends man begins. The ultimate matter of Nature is the primal matter of man. So, then, by an admirable design, God has appointed that the primal matter of Nature should be water, which is soft, gentle, and potable. Yet its offspring or fruit is hard, as metals or stones, than which nothing is harder. The very hardest, therefore, derives its origin from the very softest — the fire from the water — in a way beyond the capacity of man to grasp. But when the element of water becomes the matrix of minerals, this is not beyond the capacity of Nature. God has produced a wonderful offspring from that mother. You judge a man by his mother. Every one has his own special feelings and properties, not according to his bodily organization, but according to his nature. Thus all metals according to their body are water, but according to their special properties they are metals, stones, or marcasites. In no other way can reason grasp that these things are diverse in substance and in body.

Thus, then, God created the element of water, that it might be the element of all metals and stones ; and He separated it from the other three elements into a peculiar body which was not in the air, in the earth, in the sky, but was something special, different from these. This he placed on the lower globe so that it might be above the earth and occupy the cavity in the earth where it lies. He founded it with such wonderful ingenuity that together with the earth it should carry men, who might walk and move upon it. And the first thing which moves our wonder in this respect is that it surrounds and encircles the globe and yet does not fall away from its appointed station ; so that the part lying under us is turned upwards just as we are, and in the same way hangs suspended downwards. Then our wonder is increased, seeing that the bed or pit of this genuine element, at its centre of greatest depth, is quite bottomless, so that the water receives no support from the earth on which it lies ; but it stands freely and firmly in itself like an ^g^, nor does anything fall away from the shell; and this is a clear miracle of God.

Now, in this element are the generations of all metals and stones, which exhibit themselves under multifarious natures and forms. Moreover, as you see, all fruits grow out of the earth into the air, and none of them remain in the earth, but go out of it and separate themselves from it, so, growing out of the water, there go forth metals, salts, gems, stones, talcs, marcasites, sulphurs, etc. — all proceeding from the matrix of this element into another matrix, that is, into the earth, where the water completes its operation, but the root of minerals is in the water, as the root of trees and herbs is in the earth. But they are brought to perfection above the earth, and pass on to their ultimate matter, which is entirely in the air. In like manner is completed on the earth that which grows in the water. So, then, when the root is in the water the growth takes place on the earth, and hence the doctrine of those writers is clearly erroneous who advance the the opinion that minerals grow out of the earth, and that all these minerals, how many soever they be, recognise the earth as their mother. This idea is worth nothing. Indeed, nothing grows from the earth save leaves, grasses, woods, herbs, and the like. Everything else is from the water. Otherwise, by the same method of reasoning, it might be said of the growing things of the earth that they grow in the air since they live in the air ;

but this is clearly fallacious. Their roots are found in the earth, and hence we learn that their origin is in the earth, but their perfecting in the air. In the same way, that which originates in the water acquires its perfection in the earth. The growth of minerals follows the same course, convincing us that they are aqueous, and proceed from the water, existing in the water as the primal matter of those same minerals, just as all fruits of the earth are generated in the earth, and after the predestined period they burst forth into harvest, or autumn, and generate that which is in them. When a root of this kind is born, it first rises into its own special tree, that is, its body, from which the particular mineral, metal, or other growth, should be produced in the earth. In like manner, also, the nut or the cherry does not spring straightway out of the earth, but first of all the tree is produced, and afterwards the fruit ; so, also, in the water Nature first puts forth a tree, which is the aqueous body, and this afterwards grows out into the earth ; that is, it occupies the pores of the earth, just as the tree fills the air. When this tree is now put forth into the earth, the fruits are forthwith born, congenital with the tree, according to their nature and condition. Here the metal grows in its own special kind, there some sort of salt is produced, there again some genus of sulphur breaks forth, and elsewhere some sort of gem is protruded..

And, just in the same way as many cherries or pears are found on one tree, so similar fruits of the water are found at the extremities, and, as it were, on the shoots of the trees appertaining to the element of water. Again, like as some trees put forth many fruits, and others only few, so, in this case too, there is a similar property, nature, and condition. Trees of this kind, therefore, should first be sought, and afterwards their fruits. Thus, the rustic who pursues his culture in the element of water will be taught and instructed, as the husband-

man who plies his craft in the soil is taught how he should pursue his husbandry and where fruits must be found. Careful attention, too, should be given in this method of generation, so that the illustration from the earth may hold good — in this way : There are some trees which bear their fruit, not nakedly, but under mixed conditions. The chestnut, the nut, and other similar growths, have a bark, thorny in appearance, and inside another, while, lastly, a thin skin encloses the kernel. So, in like manner, there are metals, also, and minerals lying hid in flesh and skin, such as are the ore of iron, the ore of silver, and so on. These have to be removed in order that, after separation, the desired fruit may be extracted. On the other hand, there is another kind which puts forth its fruits nakedly, as cherries, plums, grapes. From these nothing is thrown away, but all is useful and good. So in the aqueous fountain are found pure and naked silver, gold, coral, carabe, and the like. These are all so arranged by Nature that there may be different sorts of trees and of barks, in which the mineral lies, which also depend upon the variety and division of water, climate, and geographical position. That which lies hid within has to be extracted from the bark or shell, just as in the case of fruits. And yet further, as you see in the kernel a body and the kernel itself, so be well assured that, similarly, in the element itself there is a body and a spirit, so that the body has first to be sought for, and then the spirit in the body.

Now, it is the spirit that makes the body, and so it makes also the mineral (or the nutriment). The mineral has one body, the fruit another. That is the same as saying that, although there may be gold in a body, and the body is worthless, because impure, and it must be separated by the goldsmith, so gold has a body which is not impure. There are two bodies. In the second is incorporated the fruit of the mineral, which need not be separated from that gold. So then the fruits are first developed out of the element into a tree, afterwards into a body, and within the first shell that which is precious and good. Just as man is a twofold body, a dense body which is worthless, and within this another body which is good, so is it with all growths. Whatever God has created He perfects its corporality by a similar process. He has made man in one way, a tree in another, and a stone in another. But He made man more carefully, because He would that man should be created in His own likeness, so that eternity, in which other created things have no share, might reside in man.

The same judgment is to be passed concerning the death of elements, because water has its own death no less than other things. Indeed, water is its own death, eating into, strangling, and consuming its own growth. We have proof of this in the earth. That which grows from it returns to it and perishes, so that no part of it any longer survives. So yesterday perishes and no man will ever see it again, and it is in like manner with the night past. In like manner also pass away all things born of the earth, which return to the earth, and are consumed by it, and yet it is not heavier by half an ounce then It was yesterday, nor is it heavier to-day than it was a thousand years ago. Its weight remains one and the same. God has gifted His elements with this peculiarity, that they should give fruits and consume their superfluities, but whither those superfluities have gone no man knows, any more than he knows whither yesterday has gone. In like manner, the element of water is its own death, inasmuch as it consumes and mortifies its own fruits. That death is in the great centre and terminus of water, the open sea, into which all water flows. Whatever passes hereinto dies and decays, passing away even as wood is consumed in the fire. And as, year by year, new fruits emerge from the earth, while the old ones perish, so, every day new minerals are begotten, be they metals, marcasites, gems, stones, salts, or springs.

These all come forth girt about with death, as an infant who brings along with it death bound up with life. By the same method of reasoning, metals, too, bring with their ov/n beginning their own death too, and they die in the terminus of the water, that is, in the open sea. The Rhine, the Danube, the Elbe, and other rivers are not the element itself ; they are its fruits. The element is in the open sea. It is that out of which all grow and into which all must perforce return, and thus they acquire death whence life is 'allotted to them This death will be more fully described hereafter in distinct paragraphs, when it is pointed out separately how each mineral comes into being and dies.

Now, with regard to the tree of the element of water, mark this. When Nature is about to put forth any growth into the world — be it gold, silver, copper ; be it gem, emerald, sapphire, granate ; be it a spring, sweet or brackish, warm or cold ; be it coral or marcasite — she then raises up, from the element of water, a tree on the earth, so that its root is fixed in the centre of the sea (or of the matrix). That tree sends forth its seed into the earth, and spreads forth its branches. Know, therefore, that its stock has the form of a liquid, which is not water, oil, bitumen, or mucilage. It has the appearance of wood produced from the earth, but still it is not wood, nor seed (or stock) and yet it is of the earth, and each has its own body. That liquid is the stock, and its branches are that same liquid, just as a tree is wood, and its branches are like in kind. So, then, the mineral tree is formed into a body of this kind, and afterwards divided into its ramifications, so that one branch very often extends from another into a second or third, running out and separately extending itself to a space of twenty, forty, or sixty miles. One branch turns to the German Alps, another to Lungia, another to the Valley of Joachim, and another to Transylvania.

Such is its distribution throughout the whole world. In this way innumerable trees are interwoven, wherever the earth extends. As trees grow forth in this fashion, one after another on all sides, their extremities extend to the uttermost parts of the earth. Sometimes they crop up to the surface of plains under the open sky ; sometimes they remain in the earth according to the nature and condition which is special to each tree. Hence it follows that at the extremities of the branches the nature of the element of water pours forth its fruits on the earth, As soon as ever these fruits drop on the earth they are at once coagu-

lated, and there is produced from every such tree just what should be produced in proper kind and quantity. When its fruit has been completely shed, that tree withers and dies within itself. It perishes like all other things, and itself passes on to the consummation where all things find their end ; while, lastly, according to its nature, a new growth emerges thence. From this you may learn that the primal matters of all minerals are put together in water, and that this primal matter is neither more nor less than Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, which are now made the soul, spirit, and true essence of. the element. These three substances contain within them all metals, salts, gems, and the like. And when, at the predestined period, it is about to beget those fruits which it cannot help producing, then each genus and species gives birth to that which is like itself. Thus, if any person had different seeds, as many as ever the world produces, mixed together in a bag, and if he were to cast these forth, or to sow them in a garden. Nature, being equal to the occasion, would by-and-by allot to each its own fruit, bringing every separate seed to its own vigour and perfection without injury to the others. Exactly the same is it with the element of water, as though this were the bag filled with seeds of all kinds to be sown. Here, too, every genus and species is brought to its own nature and perfection. God, according to His marvellous plan, has gifted the four elements with these miracles of creation. These are the elements from which issue forth fruits destined for the service of man. Every different kind has been created by God. By such investigations as these the mighty works of God are explored and understood.

Surely, therefore, that philosophy is worthy of all praise which puts forward only the works of God for our consideration. Every man is bound to learn all he can about these, so that he may know what, and how much, his Creator has done for his sake. True, the enemy has intruded and sown his tares in this philosophy. Such as this are Aristotle, Albertus, and Avicenna, with their accomplices, who are mere tares of the field. That enemy bursting in has devastated everything and begotten other noxious philosophers whose system is destitute of all knowledge of Nature, and is without any foundation at all. Lacking all light of experience, such philosophy violates in the most disgraceful way the light of Nature. Its professors are the busy-bodies who, mixing themselves up with all good things, exhibit themselves to the devil as sons of perdition. So far, you have heard that the primal mattpr is conjoined in the matrix as in a bag, being compounded of three parts. As many as are the fruits, so many are the different kinds of Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. There is one kind of Sulphur in gold, another in silver, another in iron, another in lead, tin, and so on. So, there is one kind in the sapphire, another in the emerald, another in the ruby, crysolite, amethyst, magnet, etc. Furthermore, there is a different kind in stones, flint, salts, fountains, and the rest. And there are not only so many Sulphurs, but so many Salts. There is one Salt in metals, another in gems, another in stones, another in salts, another in vitriol, another

in alum. Such, too, is the case with Mercury. There is one kind in metals, another in gems, and so on as before. Yet these things are still only three. One essence is Sulphur, one Salt, one Mercury. Add to this, that all these are still more specially divided. Gold is not one but manifold, as also a pear, an apple, is not one but manifold. There are, therefore, just as many Sulphurs of gold. Salts of gold, Mercuries of gold. The same remark applies to metals and gems. As many sapphires as there are, some more valuable, others more common, so many Sulphurs of sapphire. Salts of sapphire, and Mercuries of sapphire are there. The same is true of turquoise and all other gems. All these things Nature holds, as it were, as in one closed hand, from which she puts forth every separate kind, the best and noblest that she has. Thus, she contributes metals to one genus, and divides that genus into other and various species, all comprising metals. In this way the three primals are to be understood, namely, that they embrace as many created species as grow ; and yet they are only composed of one Sulphur, one Salt, and one Mercury. As a painter with one colour depicts numberless figures and forms, no one of which is like another, so Nature is like that painter. In this alone they differ; Nature produces these things with life, while the painter produces only dead ones. Nature's productions are substantial ; the painter's are mere shadows.

Then again, the reasoning about colours leads to a similar conclusion. On that head, notice this brief information, that all colours proceed from Salt. Salt gives colour, gives balsam and coagulation. Sulphur gives body, substance, and build. Mercury gives virtues, power, and arcana. So these three ought to be combined, nor can one exist without the other. God gives life to those whom He has predestined to derive it from these as it has seemed good to Him. Now Nature herself extracts the colours from the Salt, giving to each species that colour which is suitable. The body which is appropriate to each it takes from Sulphur. Thus, too, the necessary virtues are derived from Mercury. So, then, whoever wishes to learn the bodies of all things must before all else make himself acquainted with Sulphur. Again, he who desires to know colours must seek his knowledge from Salt. He who wishes to learn virtues let him scrutinise the secrets of Mercury. So he will have laid the foundation for examining the mysteries of every growing thing as Nature has infused these mysteries into each separate species. But you should know that Nature has mixed up such bodies, colours, virtues, one with the other ; yet with a little effort it is possible for any one who will, and to whom God gives the power, again to separate them, to form, colour, and endow them. You see and know how it wakens our wonder when from a dusky black seed emerges a tree adorned with its bright and joyous colours, with leaves, fruits, and flowers.

This mystery of Nature, as it exists in flowers, is so sublime and great that no one can fully investigate it. God is very much to be admired in His works, and from the contemplation of these one ought not to withdraw by night or day, but constantly to take delight in the study of them. This is in the truest sense to walk in the ways of God.

Moreover, it will be in consonance with my subject, and of practical use as well, if I advise you in one course of the order observed in this book about minerals. This order is different to that which has been pursued by others. First the metals will be treated, and these are not of one kind but distributed according- to their own essences and also according to the uses which they supply for men. Some of these are fragile, others durable, and in proportion they are subservient to human convenience. So, also, some gems are useful to man not m their metallic form, but in order that they may be worn, or minister to human health. Such as these are the sapphire, the magnet, the cornelian, etc. , These are created in a special form, so that a man may be able easily to carry them about with him. Then, again, there is another kind of stones which man does not use as he uses a metal or a gem, but which he employs for building houses or other receptacles necessary for human life. Further still, another genus is composed of Salts, of more than one species, which are neither metals, nor gems, nor stones, which also are useful for purposes which are subserved neither by metals, gems, nor stones. Moreover, a special order has been assigned to springs, some of which do good to the internal organs of the body, others help it externally.

Some are warm and others cold, some acid whilst others are sweet. There are so many different species that one could not exhaustively define them. There are also different kinds of marcasites, two, for example, coloured like gold and silver. But there are very many species in which God has held several things in reserve, which also are put in man's hand that he may seek what he will, and extract from them whatever God has conferred upon them. There are also things that belong to a different genus ; talc, of which there are four sorts, red, white, black, and clay-coloured. This genus comprises neither metals, gems, stones, salts, springs, nor marcasites, but something special and by itself. It gives also sand, with a supply of silver. Of this more need not be said than that it is useful for buildings and for making cements. There is also another genus given to us, namely, sulphureous minerals, of which there are two, the clay-coloured and the black ; and there are also carabse.

There are more of this nature, and especially one genus which is allied to no other, in which the health of men is to be found, and it can also be applied to external uses. Besides this there is another genus not like the above-mentioned, namely, corals. Of these the red and the white are well known. Other colours are also found, and forms such as are described in the paragraphs devoted to the subject Moreover, after these there remains another genus, beyond what is natural, which, by the will of Nature, becomes an instrument of various forms and properties, as the eagle-stone and the buccinae, cockles, patellae, etc. The origin of these from the element of the water, you can find in my succeeding paragraph. From the element of water too, many kinds of fruits are produced ; and though I shall only describe those which are known to me, I have found out much more, because the lower globe and the higher sphere, in all their parts, above, below, and on every A Book about Minerals. ^47 side, are crammed with such as have been mentioned. I should, therefore, be fully competent to write about these. But still it is true that many are hidden in the world about which I know nothing. Yet neither do others know them. It is, indeed, true that many and various things are about to be revealed by God, concerning which none of us has hitherto even dreamed. F^r it is true that nothing is so occult that it shall not at length be made manifest. Some one will come after me whose great gift does not yet exist, and he will manifest this.

You should know, however, that there are three parts in this Art, to which the perfections of minerals are compared. These three artifices in the nature of the element are congenital with the three primals. For as man has his gifts in the arts, by which he excels, so also Art affords to them in the matter of the three primals. And it should next be understood that no man can bring to perfection any thing or any work by himself, without some one to help him. No one is superior to another save that man alone who knows how to conjoin what should be conjoined. Iron ore, for example, is ready to hand. But what can it do of itself? Nothing, unless there be added one who will fuse and prepare it. Secondly, this is nothing without a smith to forge it. This, again, is of no practical use unless there be someone to buy it and to apply it to its purposes. Such is the condition of all things. The same thing likewise occurs in Nature, vvhere it is not one thing only which makes a mineral. Others must be added, analogous to the fuser, buyer, seller, and user. If Nature does not supply this work, she deputes it to man, as the primal matter whose duty it is to supply what is lacking. Nature, nevertheless, has need of a dispenser, who will arrange and set in order what ought to be joined together, so that what should be done may find accomplishment.

One is ordained by God for this conjunction, and that is the Archeus of Nature. He afterwards requires his operatives to co-operate with him, to fashion the thing, and bring it into that condition for which it is appointed. Hence it ' follows that three things must be taken which reduce every mineral to its appointed end. These are Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. Those three perfect all things. First of all there is need of a body in which the fabrication shall be begun. This is Sulphur. Then there is necessary a property or virtue. This is Mercury. Lastly, there is required compaction, congelation, unification. This is Salt. Thus at last the thing is brought about as it should be. But it is not every Sulphur which is a body for gold, nor every Mercury for its virtue, nor every Salt for its unification ; but just as there are many blacksmiths, one doing this thing, another that, so also here. God, therefore, has appointed that the Archeus should set in order those things which are to be conjoined, just as a baker, cooking bread, joins together what has to be joined, or a vinedresser seeks out and joins what has to be joined for the purpose of cultivating his vineyard. Everything is appointed to its own purpose, and everything finds out what is necessary for its own special purpose. Now, if the Archeus has his lead ore, and it be necessary to form a tree in gold, iron, jacinth.

granate, duelech, marble, sand, cachimia, or what not, then he takes and combines the three simples. Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, which are of this nature, and do serve his purpose. Afterwards he casts them into his Athanor, where they are decocted, as seed in the earth. They are decocted again in such a way that Sulphur may add its body, in which the operation consists. They prepare it according to their judgment for that which it ought to be or to become. Next, out of the other two Mercury is decocted for its properties, so that those may be present which ought so to he. When these decoctions have been made, there follows, lastly, conservation, which is brought about by means of Salt. In this way all is coagulated ; that is, the Salt first unifies, next congeals, and lastly, coagulates. Now it is strengthened, so that already the autumn is ready and he is at hand who is to beat out the metal. Let this brief account suffice for every generation of metals, namely, in what way they are conjoined. Concerning each one separately, how it is to be dealt with, instruction shall be given in the particular chapter. And this teaching, indeed, concerning minerals is necessary in order that everything may be more rightly and plainly understood, and that you may not be led away by the deceits of the old writers and their followers. They are puffed up with vast self-esteem, and are only approved by those like them, who are as unskilful as themselves, but do not take their ease quite so much, hoping that they may search into and gather these things by more exact study.

Concerning the generation of metals, you may be assured that there is a great number and vast variety of them. A metal is that which fire can subdue, and out of which the artisan can make some instrument. Of this class are gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, tin. These are called metals by every one. But there are also, besides these, certain metals which are not reckoned as metals, either in the writings and philosophy of the ancients nor by the common people, and yet they are metals. To these belong zinc and cobalt (which are subdued and forged by force of fire), as also certain granates (accustomed to be so called) of which there are many kinds, themselves also metals. But many more are those which up to this time are not as yet known to me, as are many different sorts of marcasites, bismuths, and other cachimiae, which produce metals, but of kinds not yet known. Only the principal ones are known, which are more ready and convenient for use, such as gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, lead. The rest are pretty completely neglected, and nobody cares about their properties — neither the smith nor the ironworker, the tinman, brazier, or goldsmith. Nevertheless, these metals are for other operators, not yet born. No one is competent to learn save in one way and by a single art. The assertion that quicksilver is a metal has no truth in it. It belongs to another class of minerals ; not being a metal, a stone, a marcasite, or a sapphire, etc. It is a peculiar growth of Nature, gifted with its own body like the rest, and provided with its pro-

perties. The custom is passing away, top, of arranging seven metals for the seven planets. From this it arose that, not having full knovv^ledge of metals, people reckoned quicksilver as one of them. According to their comparison of things, gold is Sol, silver is Luna, copper is Venus, lead Saturn, and tin Jupiter. But come, arrange these things. If you join Venus and copper you will soon see how they square and agree with one another. Join and compare lead with Saturn, and notice what happens. Compare tin and Jupiter, and see what fruit will arise. Such philosophy is nothing but rubbish and confusion. Not the slightest vestige of any foundation or light appears in it. Such remarks are merely barbarous, and not philosophy at all. Of the same kind is the assertion that quicksilver is Mercury. Compare the complexion, nature, working, quality, properties, and various virtues and essences, and see how they square one with another and agree. They are quite incongruous. One has not the least likeness to the other. It is true that the Philosophy of Plants has arranged seven herbs according to the seven planets ; but these are the mere dreams of physicians, with no stability or power of proof in them. According to them, mercurialis is Mercury, heliotrope Sol, and lunaria Luna. But do you think- you " Fathers" — that you can fly away to the sky and have the power of comparing earth with heaven without any astronomy or philosophy, when you cannot even get a glimpse of what lies hid in so common a growth as the heliotrope ?

This distribution, therefore, should be admitted by nobody, but ought to be relegated to those who do not judge according to the light of Nature, but by their own long stoles. The chapter on metals teaches you that those metals are six in number, so far as they are known to me, and I have given them above. To these are added a few others — some three or four - which are known to me, and the number and species whereof shall be given in due course. I think it very likely that a large number still remain. For by provings of the metals, many proofs present themselves which are metallic, that is, they are reckoned according to the nature of the six metals, though they do not altogether agree thereto ; so that I should augur from this that a great number of metals still remain. Every mineral can be thoroughly known and discriminated if subjected to a sufficient examination.

With regard to the generation of Gold, the true opinion is that it is "^ Sulphur sublimated to the highest degree by Nature, and purged from all dregs, blackness, and filth whatever, so transparent and lustrous (if one may say so) as no other of the metals can be, with a higher and more exalted body. Sulphur, one of the three primals, is the first matter of gold. If Alchemists could find and obtain this Sulphur, such as it is in the auriferous tree at its roots in the mountains, it would certainly be the cause of effusive joy on their part. This is the Sulphur of the Philosophers, from which gold is produced, not that other Sulphur from which come iron, copper, etc. This is a little bit of their universality. , Moreover, Mercury, separated to the highest degree, according to metallic nature, and free from all earthly and accidental admixtures, is clianged into a mercurial body with consummate clearness. This is the Mercury of the Philosophers which generates gold, and is the second part of the primal matter. The third part of the primal matter of gold, or of the tree from which gold ought to grow, as a rose from a rose-seed, is salt, crystallized to the highest degree, and so highly separated and purified from all its acridity, bitterness, acetosity, aluminous, and vitriolic character, that it no longer has anything of the kind appertaining to it, but is carefully illuminated in itself to the very supreme point, and advanced to the highest transparency of the beryl. These three ingredients in conjunction are gold, which is decocted in the way of which we have already spoken.

Moreover, the genus of gold is not single, but manifold. Its grade is not one only, but Nature of herself gives thirty-two degrees to the finest gold. In our Art, twenty-four degrees are found for establishing the best gold. The cause of this is that gold in its tree is like a cow in the pastures, or like Epicurus in the kitchen. As soon as he has gone out all vigour and animation become fallen and diminished. So is it with gold : because if it be reduced so as to be the first matter of man, then, as if gone out of its kitchen, it at once loses eight out of the thirty-two degrees to which allusion has been made. But there are diversities in the kitchens, too, some being better and others worse. Accordingly as the gold falls into this one or the other, so it is either increased or diminished in degrees from twenty-six degrees as a maximum down to ten degrees as a minimum. The grades below this are too pale and not recognisable. For it is the nature of gold to be either light or dense. This happens from some impediment which occurs from the stars or other elements which aid in the decoction. As one man is more dense or more subtle than another, so neither does gold always attain its complete grade, principally for this reason that too much body, or Salt, or Mercury, has been added, from which fault and error are sure to arise.

Too much Salt causes too great paleness. Too much Mercury makes the gold too much the colour of corn. Too much Sulphur confers excessive redness. And it must be remembered, too, that sometimes the weights are unequally divided. Nature sometimes errs as well as men. If this happens, the grade is unequal. It reaches a point from twelve to twenty-four. But if the superfluous weight be removed (as it can be by Art), say, by antimony, by quarta, as it is called, by regal cement, or by other means, the irrelevant weights are removed and the twenty-four degrees remain. Let not the Alchemist, then, attempt rashly to graduate gold, which is done in this way. For the weight in excess is unfit to assume its degree and to be reduced to a just standard. But what is not good of its kind cannot be exalted. Yet it may be that gold which is too pallid in its decoction may be graduated. But a principal item of knowledge with regard to this is that it does not lose its body in regale, antimony, and quarta. Indeed, it persistently retains both its colour and its weight. This is a property of good gold.

Gold becomes white by Sulphur in the manner already detailed. But the other two, Mercury and Salt, are white, and of a golden nature. These so tinge a sulphurous body that it loses its redness and grows white. Sulphur takes the tint of other colours. For though the whole be red, or white, or clay-coloured, its colour is changed by the tincture which is composed of Mercury and Salt. When, therefore, the body is Sulphur, the tincture of Alchemy can easily change its colour. It is necessary, however, in this case, that the other tincture, the Alchemical to wit, should tinge the Mercury and Salt from whiteness to redness. In this way gold assumes the colour which it ought to have. And it should be realised that there are complexions in gold and in other metals, just as there are in man himself. Another fact which should be accepted is that the white complexion also is changed by corporal transmutation. So also is redness. These two colours separately inhere in redness. Yellowness inheres in whiteness ; and these are subject to the primary colours. This transmutation can be effected by means of Alchemy, but under the condition that it shall be directed to the complexions, and that it shall first of all be tested in man, so that one shall be made of a melancholy or a sanguine temperament, just as cattle may be made black or white, and that by a tincture. Nature, indeed, in her mineral working, acts exactly as she does with man in his generation. In the same way man also ought to act in the generation of Nature, as being superior to Nature in this respect, if only Nature has gifted him with the astral mysteries of the arts. This method of treatment, however, I now relegate to astronomy.

Attention also must be paid to the fact that at this juncture Nature takes the lead in matters of the kind described. In Sulphur there is nothing save a body, in Salt nothing, only in Mercury. Sulphur and Salt are so far available that the one gives the body in which is gold, the other adds strength. In what relates to the nature, force, and virtue, all this is due to Mercury. Whatever property there is in Sulphur belongs to all alike. There is nothing in it except body where Mercury is not present. So in Salt. But know that Salt is a balsam, and conserves Mercury so that its virtues and properties shall not putrefy or decay. Thus, this virtue is incorporated with gold, and if it be separated after coagulation in Salt it cannot be detected by 'Art, as neither can the properties of Sulphur be discovered. But all these are readily found in Mercury. So when Art separates, it deserts the body, nor takes any heed of its medicine. In like manner, it deserts Salt, together with its medicine. And although the body has some influence as a body, and Salt as Salt, still, these medicines must not be sought therein, but only in Mercury, which contains all things. For this is the rationale of creation, that in all the "outgrowth? from the four elements of Nature, not only are those things present which are of themselves seen and understood, but these also contain within them the magnet which, in decoction and preparation, attracts to itself the essences of the three primals, that is, the Quintessence, as the ancients term it, though they ought rather to call it the^uart-essence. For the mineral

consists of three ; and besides these there is the magnet, which is a medicine. The magnet has attracted this and it is found in Mercury. But Mercury itself, too, in its ultimate separation, loses much of its weight. When Nature is thus prepared and lead to such increase, at first the . gold becomes a tree after its kind. This spreads itself, and afterwards are generated the branches. The flower follows ; then the fruit. The flower in the earth, like that in any other tree, is at the extremity. And as the flower is at the extremity, and the nucleus too, while yet immature, so there is the same method observable in the generation of gold and of all metals. When the flower falls the fruit is born in its place. This, it is true, does not always burst forth where the flower had stood, but this is the nature of the auriferous tree, that the fruit flourishes sometimes at the distance of several hundred ells in the interior of the tree itself, some straightway in the open air, and others midway between the two. There is thus some difference amongst auriferous trees, the natures of which vary one- from the other. Hence they are found distributed in different ways, just as their own peculiar mode of growth is assigned by God to other trees.

Besides, with regard to gold, this fact also deserves to be well weighed, namely, that it is sometimes overloaded with impediments, so that occasionally nothing takes place except a_g;g.ne.ra.t.i.Qn of Mercury. If this takes place, it leads one astray. If corrosive salts fall on the flowers, they are eaten away, just as the actual flowers on trees are eaten by worms. The gold, too, is chilled by Mercury or burnt by Salts. There are many mishaps of this kind. The earth, and the firmament, and the air may destroy it. Unless these are fruitful they bring forth no good. As trees are burnt up by a blazing sun, so here also it takes place in the water. The light of philosophy teaches us all these matters, and they are abundantly established by experience. The minerals of gold, therefore, and others, are forced to submit to hindrances of this kind. There is nothing in existence which is not occasionally shaken with its tempests. But there are other impediments which are wont to effect the degree. Of this class are cachimise, resins, and other marcasites, which insinuate themselves into the workings, and send forth their tinctures. All these are rejected in the Art.

Concerning Silver. Silver is generated from white Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, which, being most subtly prepared and rendered transparent, have been restored to a fixed nature, that is, they are fixed from their special nature nearest to gold in a fire of ashes, but not with antimony, regale, and quarta. Here is the difference in fixation between gold and silver, in this respect, that gold is male ancf possesses masculine virtues, while silver is female and is possessed of feminine virtues. Herein lies the difference between the fixation of gold and of silver. Since gold is male it can bear more fixation, but silver less. Thus the matter of silver is comprised in its primals, as is the case with a woman. Gold ind silver, indeed, are of one and the same primal matter ; but the same listinction supervenes as exists betw^een a man and a woman. Of the gfeneration of Jove it should be known that it is produced from ixed white Sulphur, fixed Salt, and from Mercury that is not fixed ; and for :his reason, because Jupiter is fixed according to body, but not in the substance of Mercury. It loses all its fusion and malleability. Afterwards it :eases to be a metal ; for the metallic spirit is separated therefrom by Art. \s soon as ever this has been done, it is nothing else but white Sulphur, and Salt, and dried Mercury.

Saturn is born from a black, sulphurous, and dense body beyond all other Tietals. On account of its density it consists of the thickest Mercury and the nost fluid Salt, so that there is received into Saturn the most fluid body of Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. These same, moreover, are the three most dense latures of all the metals. If this metal be dissolved and ceases to be lead, it secomes ceruse, spirit of Saturn, lead ochre, and finally glass. It consists jf three colours, the lemon colour it gets from Sulphur, and the white from VIercury. It gets its spirit from Salt, and from all together its vitreous lature, just as all the metals have. Concerning Iron and Steel. On the other hand, iron is generated from the least fluid Sulphur, Salt, ind Mercury, being the very opposite of tin and lead. It is coagulated into a lard metal, and copulated in itself. For two metals are joined together in 3ne, iron and steel. Iron is feminine and steel masculine. This conjugation ■esembles that of gold and silver, that is to say, the male and female grow iogether. They can, therefore, be in their turn separated, the female to her ;ex, the male to his. The female can be applied to her uses, and the male to lis in like manner.

Copper is generated from purple Sulphur, red Salt, and yellow Mercury. [f these three colours be mixed with one another, copper is produced. SJow, copper contains within itself its own female element, that is, its scorise. [f these are separated by Art, and the body reduced, it comes out male. The lature of each constituent is such that the male does not suffer itself to be igain destroyed, and the female no longer emits scoriae. They differ from one mother in fluxibility and malleability, as iron and steel differ. If that separaion be made, and each consigned to its own nature, two metals are produced, liflfering altogether in essence, species, and properties. Note. Such and so many in number are the metals, as I have reckoned them ip, namely, gold, silver, tin, lead, iron, steel, female copper, and male copper. Thus they are eight in number. But if — as cannot be the case — iron and steel, and male and female copper respectively, are reckoned each as one metal, there would be only six, and the arrangement would be inconvenient. There are seven well-defined and publicly known metals : gold, silver, tin, lead, iron, steel, and copper, the last being reckoned as one metal, since the male and female are wrought together and not separated, as they ought to be.

You perceive, from what has been already said, that the male is not always solitary without a consort, but often they co-exist, as in the cases of gold and silver, iron and steel, which grow together in one working, from which each retains its own special nature, but still they are mixed so that one does not impede the other, nor are they of their own accord separated one from the other. Such, too, is often the case with tin and lead. But where they are thus joined no good result ensues from them. They do not square into one body ; but it is better that each should be separated into its own body. Metals can be adulterated. Only gold and silver mix with the other metals, for the reason that they are the most subtle. Only, therefore, when such a primal matter is present, does each grow up together by itself. It may easily be that six or seven different fruits shall be grafted together on the same tree ; and there is the same marvellous kind of implantation here in Nature. Moreover, there is a certain metal, not commonly known, called zinc. It is of peculiar nature and origin. Many metals are adulterated in it. The metal of itself is fluid, because it is generated from three fluid primals. It does not admit of hammering, only of fusion. Its colours are diff'erent from other colours, so that it resembles no other metals in the condition of growth. Such, I say, is this metal that its ultimate matter, to me at least, is not yet fully known. It does not admit of admixture ; nor does it allow the fabrications of other metals. It stands alone by itself.

Concerning Cobalt. Moreover, another metal is produced from cobalt. It is fluid like zinc, with a peculiar black colour, beyond that of lead and iron, possessing no brightness or metallic sparkle. It is capable of being wrought, and is malleable, but not to such an extent as to fit it for practical use. The ultimate matter of this substance has not as yet been discovered, nor its method of preparation. There is little doubt that the male and female elements are joined in its constitution, as in the case of iron and steel. They are not capable of being wrought, but remain such as they are, until Art shall discover the process for separating them. Concerning Granates. Besides these, there is another peculiar metal which is found in streams and marshes, in the form of a seed like a large or small bean. It is founded and wrought by itself, but not so as to fit it for making instruments. It is of no practical use, nor is it known what properties it comprises. Unless Alchemy shall disclose its nature, it is not likely to be made clear at all. It allows many mixtures of silver and gold, which penetrate it as they do copper or lead. It is produced from citron-coloured Sulphur.

Note. — Concerning Gems. There are other transparent granates in the form of crystal, wherein are latent both silver and gold. Concerning Quicksilver. There is, moreover, a certain genus which is neither hammered nor founded ; and it is a mineral water of metals. As water is to other substances, so is this with reference to metals. So far it should be a metal as Alchemy reduces it to malleability and capacity of being wrought. Commonly it has no consistence, but sometimes it has. The right opinion about it is that it is the primal matter of the Alchemists, who know how to get from it silver, gold, copper, etc., as the event proves. Possibly also tin, lead, and iron can be made from it. Its nature is manifold and marvellous, and can only be studied with great toil and constant application. This, at all events, is clear, that it is the primal matter of the Alchemists in generating metals, and, moreover, a remarkable medicine. It is produced from Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, with this remarkable nature that it is a fluid, but does not moisten, and runs about, though it has no feet. It is the heaviest of all the metals.

So far, then, all the metals have been thus described, up to the point that they are known to me, according to their substance and origin, following that guide, and based upon that foundation, which is supplied by the ultimate matter. By means of this the first three are found out, what is their species, and whence they are derived. Indeed, the generation of the others cannot be explained in any way save by experience, which is finally proved by the primal matter in Vulcan. In this way none can err. Concerning Cachimi^e, that is, the Three Imperfect Bodies. Attention should be paid to a certain genus of minerals which is, indeed, of a metallic nature, but is not a metal. The things which belong to this genus possess peculiar qualities, of which I shall give several instances. For example, all marchasites, which are multifold, red and white, as also pyrites, which are also multifold, white and red, and of another genus than marchasites. There are, moreover, the genera of antimony, which are many, perfect and imperfect ; next the varieties of arsenicalia- To these also pertain talcs, auripigments, and many cachiiniae of this kind, which differ with the regions in which they are found. Concerning these we must set down that they are to a certain extent metallic, in that they have a proximate metallic first matter, and descend from the first three metallic principles. Metals such as gold, silver, copper, lead, etc., are incorporated with them. But because they incorporate also a metallic foe, nothing can be extracted from them without alchemy ; but these same foes are of great capacity. These are generated in the following order : Marchasites, pyrites, antimonies, cobalts, talcs, auripigments, sulphurs, arsenicalia. I am acquainted with all of these. General Recapitulation concerning Generation.

This chapter and text is entitled Concerning the Three Imperfect Bodies for this reason, that it is concerned with a metallic growth which bears the same relation to metals as tumourous fleshly excrescences bear to natural flesh, as the fungus bears to the herb, or the ape to the man. Of these things some are in the body of sulphur, as marcasites, pyrites, cobalts ; others are in the body of mercury, as antimony, arsenicalia, and auripigment ; yet others are in salt, as talc. Of the Generation of Marcasites. Marcasite is of two colours, citrine and white, metallic and brilliant. It is generated from imperfect metallic sulphur, which is destined to become marcasite by a natural necessity. At the conclusion of the Book about Minerals there follows in the Geneva folio a brief fragment which is concerned with the three prime principles in their connection with man. It is entitled an Autograph Schedule by Paracelsus. There are, then, in human beings only seven planets ; four of which are bodies per se, not forming part of anything else. There are also other minerals, those of the three primals to wit, which come from Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, and are specially called mineral, because they are either themselves minerals or form parts of minerals. There are two minerals, and several parts, which enter partially into their composition. Gold, for instance, bears with it three parts, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury ;

and all species comprised under minerals are made up of these three parts. Every plsnet has a perfect Yliadus. The other parts have not the same, as, for instance, sal gemmae, forming a species, not a part ; a marcasite is a species, cachimige is a species. But spirits have species in them, as the salt of a gem has Arsenic, fixed Sulphur, and liquid Mercury. The Yliadus, however, differs from the former Yliadus, because the former has his substance and mineral perfect. Minerals have such species ; not a manifest body as planets have. Wherefore the Yliadus is to be understood in a twofold sense, one referring to the body, and one to the spirits. The corporal Yliadus is partaker with the spirits of the Yliadus ; but the spiritual is not partaker with the former,

[The alchemical importance which attaches to a proper conception of the four so-called elementary substances is explained in .i note appended to the Philosophy of Paracelsus Concerning the Generation of Elements. The origin, nature, and operation of the three prime principles are, however, of no less moment. As these principles are evidently to be distinguished from salt, sulphur, and mercury of the vulgar kind, it is requisite to accentuate the distinction by contrasting at some length the references to the principles which are contained in the text of the present volume with the knowledge exhibited by Paracelsus on the subject of ordinary salt, sulphur, and mercury. The treatise concerning the first of these substances, which has been here selected for translation, is derived from a collection entitled De Naturalibtis Rebus, which will be found in the second volume of the Geneva folio.]

GOD has driven and reduced man to such a pitch of necessity and want that he is unable in any way to live without salt, but has most urgent need thereof for his food and eatables. This is man's need and condition of compulsion. The causes of this compulsion I will briefly explain. Man consists of three things : sulphur, mercury, and salt. Of these consists also whatever anywhere exists, and of neither more nor fewer constituents. These are the body of every single thing, whether endowed with sense or deprived thereof. Now, since man is divided into species, he is therefore subject to decay, nor can he escape it except in so far as God has endowed him with a congenital balsam which also itself consists of three ingredients. This is salt, preserving man from decay ; where salt is deficient, there that part which is without salt decays. For as the flesh of cattle which is salted is made free from decay, so also salt naturally infused into us by God preserves our body from putrefaction. Let that theory stand, then, that man consists of three bodies, and that one of these is salt, as the conservative element which prevents the body born with it from decaying. As, therefore, all created things, all substances, consist of these three, it is necessary that

they should be sustained and conserved by their nutriments each accordingf to its kind. Hence, also, it is necessary that all growths of the earth should gather their nutriment from those three things of which they consist. If they do not, it is inevitable that these first creations perish and die in their three species. These nutriments are earth and rain, that is, liquid. Herein there are threefold nutriments. In sulphur is its own sulphur, in mercury its own mercury, and in salt its own salt. Nature contains all these things in one. So from this liquid, which is the nutriment of natural things, natural salt is decocted. Hence by parity of reasoning it is clear that man himself also must be nourished in the same way : that is to say, that his sulphur must receive nutrimental sulphur, mercury its nutrimental mercury, and the congenital salt its nutrimental salt, whereby, from these three, man may be sustained /^ and conserved in his species. 'Whatever burns is sulphur, whatever is humid is mercury, and that which is the balsam of these two is salt. Hereupon depends the diversity of human aliments. Man has need of ardent foods for the sustentation of his sulphur ; he wants moist foods for keeping up his supply of mercury, and eats salt to cherish his nature of salt. If this order be violated, that species in the body perishes, whichever species is neglected ; and when one part perishes the rest perish with it. This order must be kept in due series. The Academics know nothing of this philosophy, a fact not be wondered at, since in other matters they neither know nor can do anything.

Now, all the world over, there are ardent foods such as flesh-meat, fish, bread, etc. So there are humid foods, as springs, flowing streams, seas. In like manner, there is salt everywhere. These things are distributed over the whole world, so that everywhere the supply of them is ready to hand. Now, with regard to the nature of man, the following should be accepted. The reason man desires food is on account of his sulphur. Why he needs drink, whether it be water or wine, is on account of the mercury ; and the reason of his desiring salt is on account of his salt in himself. These facts are little known, but nevertheless nature does crave for these things. And this is not the case with men only ; but animals, too, become fatter, stronger, more useful, and more healthy with salt than without it. If the due quantity of salt be not supplied, some defect arises in one of the two species, so that the animal decays and dies. Its nature is no longer supported by those necessary aliments which it requires. The condition of man is similar. Without nutriments of this kind he cannot live. The appetite of the nature with which he is born requires some satisfaction proportioned to his need. It is reported, indeed, that in certain newly-discovered islands men prepare no food cooked with salt, nor supply such food to their animals, but it is quite certain that their own nature and that of their cattle needs the salt water of the sea, and that they have cooked their food mixed with this. Nature never rests at ease, but constantly catches at and seeks for that which its necessity and use require, and thus compels cattle, not to mention man, to lick salted things.

For ourselves, custom and necessity alike prescribe that we eat salt in our food. Such an ordinance is natural and prudent. In this way three nutriments meet ; that is to say, salt and food in one, and with these a third, namely, drink. By these nature is nourished and sustained. I have said of salt that it is the natural balsam of the living body. That is, so long as the body lives, so long the aforesaid salt is its balsam against putridity. By this balsam the whole body of man, as well as that of other creatures, is kept and conserved. But if there accrue to man any decay or — if I may so term it — any cadaverousness, as in the disease called Persian fire, the reason is that. Now, if everything in creation is to be dissolved, it is clear that even the very balsam itself contains the elements of dissolution, and when once this dissolution begins, its strength and power increase. If the balsam is dissolved or corrupted (and the various modes in which this may take place are given in my Theory of Medicine), then forthwith corruption and decay begin, according to the mode in which the salt has been corrupted. If the salt has not undergone corruption, then neither the external nor the internal body of man decays. Hence we must conclude that salt is like a balsam in man ; and that the natural salt which man eats is his food and aliment.

I have discussed the subject of salt at some length, for the sake of securing fuller intelligence of the matter. Putting aside, therefore, the idea of a natural balsam, I would point out, moreover, concerning the salt in food, how it is an aliment, and with what gifts it is endowed by God, both for preserving the health of men and for warding off many diseases. But since nothing is so good as not to have some evil combined with it, it remains for us to recount the evil there is in salt, so that in this way the good and evil may be conjoined, and the one separated from the other. The nature and condition of salt are very remarkable. If salt can preserve the dead body or corpse, much more will it preserve the live flesh. If by its power and efficacy salt preserves the dead body from worms, much more the living body, and for this reason, that it is not only an aliment, but a necessary food and a medicine useful for old and young alike. Salt must be supplied to all.

But there are three kinds of salt. There is sea salt, which is salt of itself, not salted by others. As wine differs from water, so the sea in its nature differs from other waters. Other waters are sweet ; this is salt. Secondly, there are some springs which are sweet yet salt at the same time. These have a special nature, insomuch as they have that nature not in common with the sea, but of themselves contain a different kind of salt. Thirdly, there are also mineral salts, with the appearance of a stone, of a different kind from other metals or minerals. The best salt is from springs. Next comes that from minerals. The harder it is the better. Then there is sea salt. And as salt is divided into many kinds, so also is it sundered into many and various properties distinct from one another. As to the way in which salt is prepared, there is no need to discuss that subject here, since it is clear enough. Neither is this the place to describe how it grows. That topic belongs rather to the Book on the Generation of Minerals. My intention is to enlarge upon the virtues and vices of salt. In this case there is no need to speak of sea-salt. Whatever is written about white salt applies also to sea salt. Of rock salt not decocted again it is not treated here so much as of salt which has been so decocted. All salt, which is prepared either from water, or out of a saline and mineral, preserves the common order and virtue of salt ; for the strongest foundation is in liquid. Sea-salt and rock-salt do not become liquid. But salt which is decocted passes into a liquid before it is separated from the water into coagulated salt. The description of salt, then, is twofold. One is that of salt from liquid ; the other of salt which is entire and definite.

It should be known at the outset that this is the nature of every salt in its kind ; it is a corrective of foods. When salt is defective food is not corrected. For example : if the stomach takes food which has no salt, its decoction is languid, and its assimilation imperfect. From salt proceeds an expulsive force in the excrement and the urine. If these two functions do not proceed regularly, and the expulsions are not genuine, everything is wasted. Moreover, if the food is not properly salted, it is certain that those liquids in man which take nothing unsalted cannot be fed. The blood becomes disorganised. Where salt is not incorporated or united with the food it is not attracted by the blood. Whatever is sluggishly and faintly attracted occasions decay in the blood. Now, in order to avoid this, and for the sake of those particular members, foods should be salted, so that they may not be deprived of their due nutriment. Moreover, there is a solvent power in salt. If any obstructions of the pores or other accidents arise, salt takes away or removes these, so that they pass away in the urine. Urine is the salt of the blood ; that is, it is the salt of natural salt. Natural salt is united with nutrimental salt, and that conjunction causes the excrements to be expelled. If, however, salt is not supplied in due mode and sufficient quantity, a natural conjunction cannot be effected.

Now, let every physician know that, since natural salt is wont to issue forth or be expelled by means of salt, the use of salt should be so much the more frequent. It is a great advantage if the salt called sal gemmae is used, as being much more available than all other salts for expelling the natural salt. It is peculiarly the duty of physicians, therefore, not to neglect the three species of salt and the operations of each, but diligently to use them.

I have said above that the description of salt is twofold, one as a liquid the other as a solid or dry substance. Concerning the liquid, note this fact, that all salt dries up every description of humour that proceeds from the body. Nevertheless, the liquid itself in one hour has more effect than the dried salt would have in a whole month ; so much more of a drying nature is there against superfluous humours than in dry salt. Even if dry salt be reduced it is not of equal excellence, as you will learn in its addition and correction. It is accordingly of great importance that the liquid of salt should be correctly described. If the liquid be prepared of such a consistency that it will bear up and sustain a vessel or an &%% when thrown into it, its virtue is as follows : whatever diseases are produced from humours, infesting the natural humours, these are purged when the liquid is exhibited. Of this class are moist gout, dropsy, humid tumours, and legs swollen by the influx of humours. To speak summarily, whatever leprous humour not existing naturally it touches, it consumes. It produces such effect in this way : the liquid itself is like a warm bath or hot springs. If it be so refrigerated that the patient can sit in it, he should wash in it as is customary in hot springs, and the like.

This, however, should be done on the advice of a prudent physician, as to how long and to what extent the treatment should be continued. Thus those humours are absorbed, the feet cease to swell and are reduced to their natural condition. A sound and firm nature consists in a dry body, not a fat, adipose, and humid one. A dry and muscular body is the best and healthiest. Whatever bodies are not so constituted, but are fat, humid, and flaccid, should all be washed in that bath ; thus they will be dried and become healthy. But if it happens that after a bath of such kind in progress of time the superfluous humours again invade the body after an interval, care should be taken that the patient spend his life and dwell near salt springs. A long life is better than a short one, and the pleasures of this world must not be considered. What diseases are of a kind to need this treatment you must learn from physicians.

But now, turning to dry salt, it should be known at the beginning that there are several different kinds, as common table salt, clear salt, sal gemmae, rock salt, earth salt, and sal stiriatus. Whatever be the case with these, it should be known that any kind of salt put into water and used for washing wounds, preserves them from putrefaction and from worms, and so efi^ectually removes any worms which may have been produced, that none are ever generated again. If wounds are kept pure and clean, they are healed by the operation of Nature herself, even if they are very severe, provided only they have not assumed a poisonous aspect, in which case, for the most part, not even a balsam does any good. So also in virulent ulcers salt is a singular remedy. Besides this, if salt be put into a bath, and a patient washes therein, he is freed from all sorts of scab. In this respect the liquid is more powerful, for it is a potent cure of scab and itch. And here, too, should be noticed the possibility of correction by which dry salt may be to a certain extent reduced to this form.

Salt is useful in many other cases than we have so far reca,pitulated in external diseases of the body. So many virtues be hid in the use of salt. In conclusion, it should be remarked that in process of time the liquid removes and cures baldness and mange. Correction and Addition on the subject of a Second Time Correcting AND Reducing Dry Salt. The following is a recipe for correcting and reducing back again dry salt : Take common salt and the salt of urine in equal quantities. Let them be calcined according to the rules of Alchemy for two hours. Afterwards let them be resolved in a cell in the usual manner. Thus you will have the reduced liquid. This is of such powerful virtue that in surgical cases it differs little from the true Hquid of salt. For internal disarrangements of the body it is much slower in operation. In applying and administering it you will observe the method first mentioned. It should be known, also, that no addition is advisable, since the virtues peculiar to salt are found in no other substance. The less salt there is in other things the fewer similar virtues can be found ; and therefore every accessory preparation is useless. If alkalis be decocted these are not a genus of salt, that is, they are not salt, but alkali. There is a difference between salt and alkali in that alkali is natural salt in bodies derived from the three species.

But salt is nutrimental, feeding and nourishing even alkali. Therefore, no addition can be made, or any other correction, save only that the salt should be kept by itself without any addition, as was said on the subject of calcination. The same is true concerning the water of salt, which is distilled into a spirit from the calcined substance. This spirit resolves gold into an oil. But if it be again extracted and carefully prepared, potable gold of the most excellent character will be the result. But if without such extraction the gold be resolved, then it is a most subtle object of art for goldsmiths in gilding, and a constant and priceless treasure to other artificers for the same purpose. But, nevertheless, they must be skilled in Alchemy for the work of preparation.

Concerning clear salt, sal stiriatus, and the salt of gems, the fact is that these are most of all adapted to Alchemy, so that silver can be cemented in them after the common mode. In these salts, any Luna, that is, silver, becomes very malleable, and without the aid of fire is wrought almost as easily as lead is. It is also the best purifier of copper if it be reduced to a cement. Besides the conditions of salt already mentioned, one other property remains. It is this. In whatever place the urine of men or animals is deposited, there salt nitre is afterward produced. The urine being collected and prepared so as to form another salt, is called salt nitre. Now, salt nitre is salt formed from the natural corporeal salt and the salt of food. If these two are joined in man they expel from him what is superfluous by means of the urine, which is nothing else than natural, corporal, and nutrimental salt meeting with other humours. Now, if the urine be excreted into nitre, and stand for some time, then the spirit of salt meeting together in its operation, prepares one salt out of two, and that, indeed, of a peculiar kind. This the Alchemists afterwards extract from the nitre, clarify by alchemical art, and separate that which is not salt from the salt which has been produced. That they clarify again, and then the salt nitre manifests its conditions. In the preparation, however, a separation of the salt may be brought about, so that the true and genuine salt may again be extracted from a certain part, and the rest mixed with the salt of the nitre. Now, the reason why the genuine salt can be again extracted by decoction is, that this salt is not digested in man or in the animal, but is passed out

in a crude state, so that it can be detected as such. But that which has been digested is mixed, and, as one may say, incorporated with the corporeal salt so that afterwards it cannot be separated, but passes into the form of salt nitre. No salt in the univei'se is like this one. Alchemy found it lying hid in nitre, reduced it to the form of a coagulated salt, and then evolved the latent virtue from it, only for purposes of Alchemy and the manual art. They tried to distil sulphur and salt nitre together, but this could not be accomplished on account of the violent chemical action produced. Having accomplished this afterwards by the addition of carbon, the Alchemists discovered gunpowder, and gradually so augmented this by new inventions that now it breaks through walls like a thunder-bolt. Hence it is with good reason called terrestrial lightning. By means of this salt many of the arcana in Alchemy are brought about which need not be described here. We have not yet got at the true foundation or any good end. It is best, therefore, not to write on this subject at all, so that no one may be led astray.

But, so far as relates to the art of Vulcan, it cannot be denied that great secrets be hid there. This subject relates in no way to the health of men, but purely to igneous preparations, which demand a chapter to themselves. The nature of man is indeed wonderful, since, from the body of man or brute, simply from its excrements, and by an internal motion, such a generation is contrived that when it proceeds from living beings it is so violent against life that nothing more destructive can be imagined. It destroys man's life with such swiftness that no defence is sufficiently strong against it. But these matters must be referred to metaphysical science in the Paramirum. In the beginning of this chapter I said that Nature had incorporated salt in the liquid of the earth. From this salt all grov/ing things have proceeded, and it is the balsam of salt which I have mentioned. It should be known, too, that from this salt another salt is found also in the earth, and like salt nitre. For Nature having pores, cavities, and cataracts in the earth, deposits in them stalactites and long dependent growths with the form and appearance of salt. If these are taken and prepared by the art of salt, they put forth two kinds of salt, table salt and salt nitre. It is called saltpetre, because it adheres to rocks, from which circumstance the name originates.

Salt nitre and saltpetre, however, are distinguished by a certain difference. In the probation of salt the nature of each can be easily discriminated. A certain difference, too, can be observed in the species and powers of salt, so far as they relate to health and other matters. At the same time, I do not think it advisable that the salt which is formed from the salt nitre and saltpetre for food should be given man to eat, unless you wish to make him lean and dried up. Otherwise, it is very useful for gunpowder. It acquires another spirit, a different nature and condition.

Now, one must speak of the losses and injuries of salt, for it is well to write of the evil as well as the good. Let this be understood concerning salt, that if it be not digested it is driven from the stomach through the intestines, and in its transit causes so severe a colic and bowel complaint that it can scarcely be cured even by the most careful treatment. It acquires such a strong corrosive force that it seems as though it wished to eat away all the intestines. It has been often discovered by anatomy that a separated salt of this kind has produced perforation of the bowels. Besides this, if it remains in the stomach it causes craving, heat of stomach, and other ailments, all of which arise from crude salt adhering to the orifice of the stomach. In the case of these patients the physician must take great care to observe whether that salt has proceeded from salted, smoked, or dried foods. Salt is not added in equal portions to every kind of food ; and this circumstance should be diligently considered by the physician. It also happens sometimes that this salt enters the mesenteric veins, and is there granulated and constipated, whence arise many unusual diseases, not only local but extending over the whole body. The same may also occur in those parts to which the urine penetrates on its passage to the emunctories. All this we leave to be weighed by the prudent physician.

Now, therefore, we will conclude as to the matter of salt in its kind. We thought it should be specially described, as it is a German growth. Many more things could be said of it here, but they are not all relevant, and many of them would be injurious, so that I have been unwilling to discuss them. What seemed to me useful I have done my best to impart as the result of my experience. [The treatise which follows constitutes the seventh chapter De Natural ibus Rebus, and may be compared with The Economy of Minerals, c. 17. It is an addition of considerable importance to the Hermetic Chemistry of Paracelsus.]

GOD created the resin of the earth and endowed it with many unspeakable qualities, not only for remedying diseases, but also for alchemical operations. Other virtues also are conspicuous in sulphur, which is a resin of the earth. It will be suitable, then, not only to discuss the medical virtues of sulphur, but also to treat of its alchemistical and other uses. Much has been written and published on the subject of sulphur, but no one has ever yet reached the source of its true power. Many authors have undertaken to describe everything, but they understood nothing'. They piled up heaps of matter, but deduced nothing from the source as a good writer should do. They did not understand the subject themselves ; and though ambition led them to keep on compiling books, those books were without spirit or life, in fact, a mere dead letter. I, as an experienced man, will lay before you what I have learnt about sulphur, and what is comprised in it as regards medicine, alchemy, and in other respects. Unless God Himself interposes and hinders, the operations of sulphur are stupendous, so that the natural light in man cannot sufficiently admire them. If God does not hinder, any defect is in the artificers, who handle their sulphur so that the result does not correspond to its innate virtue. When every simpleton is made a doctor and every trifler poses as an alchemist, this fact accounts for science not being brought out into open light.

And the foundation is that so many arcana and powers of both faculties are contained in sulphur, that they cannot be thoroughly investigated by any — because, I repeat, such excellent virtues are latent therein, they are deservedly the subject of universal wonder. After long experience gained in both faculties, these powers of sulphur were discovered and understood by me, and I realised that scarcely any exist which are superior to them, or which can even be compared to them in medicine and in Alchemy. Sulphur confutes Aristotle when he says that the species of things cannot be transmuted.

Sulphur transmutes them ; and if Aristotle were alive at the present day, he would be completely put to the blush and made ashamed of himself. One who practises as a physician or an alchemist does not use Sulphur as it exists per se, but rather as it is separated into its arcanum, and so cleansed from its impurity that it becomes in its virtue whiter than snow. This is accomplished by Ysopus, that is, the art of separating, which was anciently called the Ysopaic art in Alchemy and in all kinds of sequestration. Even when crude, it is remarkable for common use and for all external purposes. But, in order to be quite accurate in explainingf Sulphur, I will differentiate it first according to its nature. It is not produced from one matrix, but from many. Hence it has diverse modes of operation, and comprises many natures, differing one from the other. These I will detail separately, so that no physician may make any mistake, and so that it may be clearly known what is its use in medicine, and also how far it is serviceable for Alchemy. When these points are established I will go on to specify its daily uses. So, then, when we shall have explained accurately and in due order its use in medicine, in Alchemy, and in other respects, all its operations will be understood by everybody, so that they will be able to handle it without danger of error.