Alchemical Mass

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posterity that they cannot extract the now hidden soul except by Ethelia, by which bodies become not bodies through
continual cooking, and by sublimation of Ethelia. Know also that quicksilver is fiery, burning every body more than
does fire, also mortifying bodies, and that every body which is mingled with it is ground and delivered over to be
destroyed. When, therefore, ye have diligently pounded the bodies, and have exalted them as required, therefrom is
produced that Ethel nature, and a colour which is tingeing and not volatile, and it tinges the copper which the Turba
said did not tinge until it is tinged, because that which is tinged tinges. Know also that the body of the copper is
ruled by Magnesia, and that quicksilver is four bodies, also that the matter has no being except by humidity, because
it is the water of sulphur, for sulphurs are contained in sulphurs.
The Turba saith:- O Dardaris, inform posterity what sulphurs are!
And he:- Sulphurs are souls which are hidden in four bodies, and, extracted by themselves, do contain one another,
and are naturally conjoined. For if ye rule that which is hidden in the belly of sulphur with water, and cleanse well
that which is hidden, then nature rejoices, meeting with nature, and water similarly with its equal. Know ye also that
the four bodies are not tinged but tinge.
And the Turba:- Why dost thou not say like the ancients that when they are tinged, they tinge?
And he:- I state that the four coins of the vulgar populace are not tinged, but they tinge copper, and when that copper
is tinged, it tinges the coins of the populace.
The Forty-Fourth Dictum.
Moyses saith:- This one thing of which thou hast told us, O Dardaris, the Philosophers have called by many names,
sometimes by two and sometimes by three names!
Dardaris answereth:- Name it, therefore, for posterity, setting aside envy.
And he:- The one is that which is fiery, the two is the
body composed in it, the three is the water of sulphur, with which also it is washed and ruled until it be perfected.
Do ye not see what the Philosopher affirms, that the quicksilver which tinges gold is quicksilver out of Cambar?
Dardaris answereth:- What dost thou mean by this? For the Philosopher says: sometimes from Cambar and
sometimes from Orpiment.
And he:- Quicksilver of orpiment is Cambar of Magnesia, but quicksilver is sulphur ascending from the mixed
composite. Ye must, therefore, mix that thick thing with fiery venom, putrefy, and diligently pound until a spirit be
produced, which is hidden in that other spirit; then is made the tincture which is desired of you all.
The Forty-Fifth Dictum.
But Plato saith: It behoves you all, O Masters, when those bodies are being dissolved, to take care lest they be burnt
up, as also to wash them with sea water, until all their salt be turned into sweetness, clarifies, tinges, becomes
tincture of copper, and then goes off in flight! Because it was necessary that one should become tingeing, and that
the other should be tinged, for the spirit being separated from the body and hidden in the other spirit, both become
volatile. Therefore the Wise have said that the gate of flight must not be opened for that which would flee, (or that
which does not flee), by whose flight death is occasioned, for by the conversion of the sulphureous thing into a spirit
like unto itself, either becomes volatile, since they are made aeriform spirits prone to ascend in the air. But the
Philosophers seeing that which was not volatile made volatile with the volatiles, iterated these to a body like to the
non-volatiles, and put them into that from which they could not escape. They iterated them to a body like unto the
bodies from which they were extracted, and the same were then digested. But as for the statement of the Philosopher
that the tingeing agent and that which is to be tinged are made one tincture, it refers to a spirit concealed in another
humid spirit. Know also that one of the humid spirits is cold, but the other is hot, and although the cold humid is not
adapted to the warm humid, nevertheless they are made one. Therefore, we prefer these two bodies, because by them
we rule the whole work, namely, bodies by not-bodies, until incorporeals become bodies, steadfast in the fire,
because they are conjoined with volatiles, which is not possible in any body, these excepted. For spirits in every
wise avoid bodies, but fugitives are restrained by incorporeals. Incorporeals, therefore, similarly flee from bodies;
those, consequently, which do not flee are better and more precious than all bodies. These things, therefore, being
done, take those which are not volatile and join them; wash the body with the incorporeal until the incorporeal
receives a non-volatile body; convert the earth into water, water into fire, fire into air, and conceal the fire in the
depths of the water, but the earth in the belly of the air, mingling the hot with the humid, and the cold with the dry.
Know, also, that Nature overcomes Nature, Nature rejoices in Nature, Nature contains Nature.
The Forty-Sixth Dictum.
Attamus saith:- It is to be noted that the whole assembly of the Philosophers have frequently treated concerning
Rubigo. Rubigo, however, is a fictitious and not a true name.
The Turba answereth:- Name, therefore, Rubigo by its true name, for by this it is not calumniated.
And he:- Rubigo is according to the work, because it is from gold alone.
The Turba answereth:- Why, then, have the Philosophers referred it to the leech?
He answereth:- Because water is hidden in sulphureous gold as the leech is in water; rubigo, therefore, is rubefaction
in the second work, but to make rubigo is to whiten in the former work, in which the Philosophers ordained that the
flower of gold should be taken and a proportion of gold equally.
The Forty-Seventh Dictum.
Mundus saith:- Thou hast already treated sufficiently of Rubigo, O Attamus! I will speak, therefore, of venom, and
will instruct future generations that venom is not a body, because subtle spirits have made it into a tenuous spirit,
have tinged the body and burned it with venom, which venom the Philosopher asserts will tinge every body. But the
Ancient Philosophers thought that he who turned gold into venom had arrived at the purpose, but he who can do not
this profiteth nothing. Now I say unto you, all ye Sons of the Doctrine, that unless ye reduce the thing by fire until
those things ascend like a spirit, ye effect nought. This, therefore, is a spirit avoiding the fire and a ponderous
smoke, which when it enters the body penetrates it entirely, and makes the body rejoice. The Philosophers have all
said: Take a black and conjoining spirit; therewith break up the bodies and torture them till they be altered.
The Forty-Eighth Dictum.
Pythagoras saith:- We must affirm unto all you seekers after this Art that the Philosophers have treated of
conjunction (or continuation) in various ways. But I enjoin upon you to make quicksilver con strain the body of
Magnesia, or the body Kuhul, or the Spume of Luna, or incombustible sulphur, or roasted calx, or alum which is out
of apples, as ye know. But if there was any singular regimen for any of these, a Philosopher would not say so, as ye
know. Understand, therefore, that sulphur, calx, and alum which is from apples, and Kuhul, are all nothing else but
water of sulphur. Know ye also that Magnesia, being mixed with quicksilver and sulphur, they pursue one another. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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