Alchemy Index
Petrus BONUS
THE NEW PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
A Treatise Concerning the Treasure and Most Precious Stone of the Philosopher
On the Method and Procedure of this Divine Art; With Observations Drawn from the Works of Arnoldus, Raymondus, Rhasis, Albertus, and Michael Scotus, First Published by Janus Lacinius, The Calabrian, with a Copious Index.
Contents
The Epigrams of Pierius Roseus and Hippolytus Fantolius Delphicus
The Greeting of Janus Lacinius, the Calabrian Minorite Friar
A Form and Method of Perfecting Base Metals, by Janus Lacinius.
Extracts Made by Lacinius from the Works of Arnolds de Villa Nova
Epitome of the Work of Raymondus Lullius
Extracts from the Light of Lights by Rhasis
Extracts from Albertus Magnus, St Thomas, and Other Sages
Curious Investigation Concerning the Nature of
the Sun and Moon, from Michael Scotus
Epigram,
Addressed to the Gentle Reader by Pierius Roseus
This work casts out cruel disease from the human body, disease produced by malignant humours; and thus you are preserved. It will teach you how to regain the beautiful flower of youth, and how to secure a green and placid old age. All this may be yours, by the favour of the gods. Poverty will be triumphantly put to flight; your treasure-house will be filled; you will be able to succour the needy, and to render the sacrifice of praise to great Jupiter.
Another Epigram,
By the Same.
Those who, for the sake of gain, have endured all manner of toil, our Calabrian bids be of a good heart. Do you love the goldmaker’s art. Surprise and ecstasy are in store for you! But if any man do not possess this book, let him not dream that he can attain anything.
An Epigram
In Hendecasyllabic Lines,
By Hippolytus Fantonius Delphicus,
Of Perusinus.
I, the Divine Art, having long suffered indignity at the hands of foolish impostors, lay sorrowing in thick darkness. Then did I imploringly beseech illustrious men of learning to pity my doleful plight, and to succour my distress; but my suppliant hands were uplifted in vain. At last one of them was filled with compassion because of my moans and tears; Lacinius flung wide my prison doors, and set a lordly crown on my head. By the flashing light of genius, he shewed to all what glorious regards I had to bestow on my followers; and every reader may see what stores of wisdom and learning I showered upon him. All the knowledge of Geber, of Bonus, and all which Raymond signified in so many books, the power of his genius focused in one small treatise. Worthy of the highest honour in this illustrious Master, whose teaching renders me accessible to all men.
The philosophers inform us that opposites belong to the same category, and therefore they throw light on each other by being brought into juxtaposition. The illustrious character of liberality and generosity only intensifies the disgrace of avarice and selfish greed. Those who know that life was bestowed on them for the sake of their friends and their country, whose years also are spent in the service of others, are worthy of the most distinguished honour. Those, on the other hand, who, by the pride of life and the greed of gain, are led to bury their talents, and to turn a def ear to the appeals of justice and humanity, while they avariciously and relentlessly pursue their own selfish pleasure, are such vile, abandoned, and harpy-like creatures that they are justly branded with the contempt and execration of mankind, The despicable avarice of those who, so far from doing any good with their money to others, do not even enjoy it themselves, by its hateful and repulsive want of social kindness sets off to the greatest advantage the overflowing generosity and liberality of opposite natures. Hence, after my return from Cisalpine Gaul to Padua, I was greatly attracted by a most lucid discourse of Bonus, a profound scholar of Ferrara, on the possibility and truth of the Alchemistic Art. Concerning this subject, he expressed himself with such profound, subtle, copious, and accurate learning that I cannot remember any obscure point which was not touched upon with unprecedented clearness and definiteness. This dissertation must be of the greatest utility, not only to ardent students of Alchemy, but even to its detractors. I should, therefore, be justly chargeable with meanness and illiberality if I refused to do all in my power to make it accessible to the general public. Such an accusation I should be loth indeed to incur, and I have, therefore, arranged for the publication of the aforesaid memorable discourse of Bonus of Ferrara, together with copious extracts from the works of Raymondus Lullius, Arnold of Villanova, Michael Scotus, Rhasis, Albertus, and other men of light and leading. In this synopsis you will find nothing that is not profound, excellent, and positively reliable. The Sages whom I have quoted possess so remarkable an insight into the nature of things, so abundant and incredible a store of learning, that solemn importance attaches to every word they utter; but it is my opinion that Bonus excels them all, and I am sure that the reader will agree with me when he sees the golden current of philosophy issue from his lips. He is more profound than all the rest in laying the foundation of his system, more subtle in his manner of expressing truth, more lucid in setting forth the secret working of Nature. It is my admiration for his genius that has induced me to describe is discourse as a Pearl of Great Price. The pearls which we find here are indeed precious, without an obscuring spot, but clear and without an obscuring spit, but clear and pure, utterly unlike the writing of those who only embarrass and bewilder the enquirer by their dark and hopelessly perplexing phraseology. Our Bonus sheds noonday brightness where they dispense only darkness as of Egypt: he shews to all students not only the truth and possibility, but the actual necessity of our Art. His utterances I have, with great industry, collected, elucidated, and expurgated, and here I present them to the student in an accessible form. Accept my gift with a joy proportioned to its worth; fold it close to your heart; thank God for it; read it diligently, day and night; and accept my best wishes that it may lead you onward to success. If this book be well received, I intend to follow it up with an explanatory synopsis of all the works of Raymondus Lullius.
Farewell.
Nuncupatory Discourse,
The Interlocutors Being Lacinius and Bonus, of Ferrara.
Bonus --- It is both customary and right, O Lacinius, that those who have accomplished anything worth mentioning in any art or science should make known their discoveries to the world, in order that mankind at large may be benefited by them. This office I have not been able to perform for myself; but as you have collected and studied my works, I earnestly hope that you will not suffer them to remain covered with the dust of forgetfulness, but that you will send me forth, in company with Arnold, Raymond, and others, to deliver my message to mankind.
Lacinius --- I will gladly do what you ask. But there is a time-honoured custom amongst authors of dedicating their works to some Pope or Prince whose favour they wish to gain, or whose patronage they desire to acknowledge. To whom shall your book be dedicated?
Bonus --- I am aware of the custom which you mention. Some adopt this device in order to save their work from the obscurity and neglect which they may have good reason to fear. Others, by placing the name of some illustrious person on the title-page, desire to safeguard themselves against the supercilious carelessness of critics, who at once throw aside any book of which the author is as yet unknown to fame. Thus, in dedicating their writings to great men, most authors are impelled by motives of self-interest, for they know very well that their patrons will probably never so much as look at their production. For much as look at their production. Or this and other reasons, I do not wish my book to be dedicated to either Pope or Prince.
Lacinius --- But are you not afraid of the insolence of the envious, the abuse of the greedy, the sneers of sciolists, the calumnies of merchants --- in short, the opposition of all who think that nobody is wise but themselves? Will not their enmity shroud you in Cimmerian darkness?
Bonus --- It is the nature of curs to bark, and they will do so while they live, especially when they see any one better than themselves. I do not care what fools say, but only what honest men, and what truth itself, may utter.
Lacinius --- But if I dedicate you to some illustrious Prince they will perhaps cease to bark.
Bonus --- You to take too favourable a view of these men. If their mouths are filled with blasphemy against God, we cannot expect them to reverence anything. Do not let any hope of propitiating them change your purpose.
Lacinius --- But, perhaps, a patron might regard me for my labour, and thus enable me to live.
Bonus --- So thought Aurelius Augurellus, who dedicated his work on gold-making to Pope Leo X, and received from that prelate, whose generosity was well-known, a gown of green silk, the colour of hope.
Lacinius --- He was right. For how could he give anything more costly to a man who professed to be an adept in the art of gold-making? Might I not at least shew my gratitude to some old and dear friends and benefactors by ascribing the work to them?
Bonus --- By such a course you would be more likely to convert your fiends into enemies. Do you not know that all who practice this art are very anxious to keep it a secret from the whole world?
Lacinius --- Alas! Is it, then, a profane pursuit?
Bonus --- That is the opinion of the vulgar. But the art is sacred, and all its adepts are sanctified and pure. For “men either discover it because they are holy, or it makes them holy”.
Lacinius --- That is not the opinion of the present age. People say that this art is unbecoming not only a godly but even an honest man.
Bonus --- And do you also echo the ignorant babble of the vulgar?
Lacinius --- Would it were of the vulgar only! But I know that it is the opinion of all classes, both high and low, learned and ignorant.
Bonus --- Can it be true? Surely they must be thinking of those sophistical impostors who are a disgrace to our science. Such men are not philosophers, but thieves and robbers: between us and them there is all the difference of day and night, good and evil, God and mammon. But, nevertheless, by their wickedness and shameless practices, they have succeeded in making our blessed Art a byword among the vulgar. Yet it is essentially an art which can never become known to any but honest and God-fearing persons. Was not the inventor of this Art, the thrice-great Hermes, a person of signal sanctity? Are there not among the professors of the great magistery holy divines like John of Damascus, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas, Roger Bacon, Haymon, Raymond, Godfrey, John, the most reverend Bishop of Ticina, Cardinal Garsia, Friar Helyas, Friar William, Friar Richard, Peter of Iliacum, Morienus, and many other monks, nay, as Vincentus, the historian, tells us, St John the Evangelist himself? Of the latter it is said that when the two youths, who had given all their good to the poor for the sake of Christ, were heavy at heart because they saw their slaves arrayed in gorgeous robes, while they themselves were poorly clad, he bade them bring him bundles of rods and pebbles from the seashore, and changed them all into pure gold. This, however, I regard as miracle, rather than a proof of our Art, for the substance was too unlike that which we use, and "one action does not make an artist". But what shall I say of Raymond, whose life and genius are the admiration of all? Raymond was first opposed to this magistery, and attempted to convince Arnold de Villanova of its impossibility, but was himself overcome, not so much in argument as by the evidence of his senses. By this discomfiture, Raymond was induced to study the Art; and when his search was crowned with success, he became the foremost champion of Alchemy, writing 500 volumes in is defense. He was also the first to discover the method of evolving precious stones out of the metallic principles; nay, he was able, not only to change lead into gold, but he transmuted gold into lead, and thus turned back the course of Nature. It is also related of him that he performed the almost incredible task of transmuting a tiny bar of metal partly into gold, partly into silver, brass, tine, iron, and lead. Are these things of no account? Are they absurd or ridiculous? And is it no wicked and unworthy of a refined and cultivated mind the suppose that the knowledge and practice of our Art is unbecoming a religious and god-fearing man? If Paul wove tents, if Luke painted, and Peter and John pursued the calling of fishermen, honest and useful work cannot be unworthy the attention of a godly person. Surely, it is more religious to do something than to be idle!
Lacinius --- Your argument is unanswerable, for you appeal to the practice of those whose words and deeds were the standard of truth, justice, faith, innocence, religion, and holiness for all mankind: as the sky is illumined with stars, so they were appointed as the lights of the world.
Bonus --- Why, then, are you so fearful of launching our little book without any dedicatory inscription?
Lacinius --- I fear most that this book may make the matter too clear to the vulgar herd, thus bestowing God’s most precious earthly gift upon the wicked and undeserving, in defiance of the ancient precept.
Bonus --- That rule was more applicable to men of old than to our present state of Christian liberty. Heathen Sages might be fearful of spreading this knowledge too commonly, but Christ has taught us the true use of riches --- to relieve the wants of the poor and needy.
Lacinius --- Why, then, do our masters follow in the footsteps of the ancients, and predict ruin to mankind from the profanation of this mystery. John de Rupicessa conjures his readers not to make the Art known to the wicked and unbelieving, as such a course would ruin the Christian faith.
Bonus --- Do you imagine that the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can be overthrown by these means? Has it not always grown most rapidly, precisely where it has been most severely opposed? But Christ Himself has given us a sovereign rule for our guidance in this matter: "Freely ye have received, freely give". What is the use of concealed diamonds, or a hidden treasure, to the world? What is the use of a lighted candle if it be lighted under a bushel? It is the innate selfishness of the human heart which makes these persons seek a pious pretext for keeping this knowledge from mankind.
Lacinius --- I know some men who are so jealous of the preservation of this secret that they will hardly read their own books, and would not for all the world allow any one else to look at them, just as if they feared that the Stone would at once leap forth from the book, if it were only opened, and that it would soon lie about in every gutter. These persons are such skinflints withal that they would rather remain in ignorance than spend a single penny in search of the Stone. I suppose they expect the knowledge to be showered down upon them from heaven. Surely we have reason to pray that such people may be delivered from their own blinding meanness and illiberality.
Bonus --- Would that a ray of Divine light might illumine the gross darkness of their understandings! But I am afraid that their folly is past praying for. If indeed they could be brought to see that this world is under Divine rule and governance, that no mortal can approach God but by God, that even the light cannot be perceived without light, they might come to understand that, without the special grace of God, this ineffable gift is not bestowed on any man.
Lacinius --- how can those harpies reply to that argument?
Bonus --- They are in a state of frenzied ignorance, which prevents them from perceiving the difficulties of the task; and so the Stone which they find is the Stone of Sisyphus. For "they are few who Jupiter loves, or whom their manly perfection exalts to the stars". When, indeed, the Stone is found, our friends, who now laugh and sneer at us, will be at a loss how to express their love.
Lacinius --- Alas, that this glorious and heavenly magistery should be regarded by many as a mere fraud and imposture!
Bonus --- No wonder, if overweening and ignorant persons such as carpenters, weavers, smiths, take upon themselves to set up laboratories, and to pretend to a knowledge of our Art. The universal prevalence of impostors naturally makes people think that our whole Art is a fraud from beginning to end.
Lacinius --- But is this knowledge not also sought by learned men, nobles, princes, and even by kings?
Bonus --- Yes, but the motive which prompts them all is an illiberal love of gold. Their hearts are as hard as the flints which they wish to change into the precious metals, and they are as ignorant withal of the elementary facts of nature as the poorest laborer. The consequence is that they fall an easy prey to impostors and itinerant charlatans, and spend their lives in foolishly experimenting with arsenic, sulphur, and all manner of solvents. Thus, instead of learning to prepare the Stone, they dissipate their money, and have empty pockets for their pains.
Lacinius --- It is a just reward for their folly; for what have those substances to do with metals?
Bonus --- We will then send forth our little book, not protected with the name of any prince or noble, but equipped only with the strength of virtue and truth, after the manner of those Egyptian kings who dedicated all things to Mercury, the giver of virtue and genius, and to the Sun, the generator of all things. We will dedicate our book to Mercury and the Sun, and to all who love righteous and truth. But those wise people who do not approve of anything what they do not understand must listen to the book, and let it speak for itself. It is well for an author if he has no need to commend himself, because his book commends him. He were a vain workman who looked for praise and preferment from anything but the value of his work. Farewell.
A Form and Method of Perfecting Base Metals,
By Janus Lacinius Therapus,
The Calabrian.
The Art of Generating M or Q.
Some of the principles of our Art are apprehended mentally or intellectually, such as Chaos, Alteration, Power, Operation, Generation, and Digestion. Others are perceived by the senses, as wine, or the First Matter, body or form, elements, the perfect being, the forming ferment, colours, fermentation, separation. Some are apprehended both by mind and sense, e.g., Sky, or Heaven.
A. --- From CHAOS goes forth an intelligent Master, who, amidst the rude, confused, and undigested mass of the elements, perceives himself advancing towards M or Q, until by B, C, D, and by the primordial elements, which follow from Nature herself, he arrives thither.
B. --- The SUBSTANCE is that from which D arises when the Artificer works extrinsically. We also apply it. to the imperfect metals which are to be changed into M or Q.
C. --- The FORM is the intelligent outward influence (the Master), which, sets in motion. these Principles. It is that also which gives being to M or Q, and by which T, S, V, Z are changed into X or Y.
D. --- The Sky is the female principle, by which that which is received of the male is nourished and increased until it is wholly changed into M or Q.
E. --- The ELEMENTS are changed from B into D, and by way of C, on the other hand, F, G, H, I, are intermingled.
F. --- CONVERSION takes place, first of C into D, and then of D into C, finally of both in turn into M or Q. F also indicates the potency of which D is the Act, and through which pearls are made and generated artificially.
G. --- PERMIXTION is the union of the male and the female principle (e.g., C with D).
H. --- DISSOLUTION is the hermaphroditic conception which takes place in either C or D.
I. --- GENERATION is partly that by which C and D produce M, and partly that by which M and D produce Q. If we place the Substance in a closed vessel, it is brought about by Nature rather than by the aid of art.
K. --- Of COLOURS, the first is black, which is more difficult to bring about than the rest, from the fact that it is the first. It shews that C and D have united, and that conception has taken place, i.e. that M or Q will ultimately be produced. Then comes white, by which we gradually progress from C to M, and thence to Q; then saffron, which indicates that the conjunction of the substances is in progress, because the seed is diffused through the whole of D; the fourth colour is red, indicating the actual accomplishment of M or Q.
L. --- DIGESTION is the gradual development of that which is conceived, by gentle outward heat, e.g., the evolution of M out of C and D, or of Q out of M and D.
O. --- SEPARATION is the severing of elements, which, originating from B and D, are also separated from the same.
P. --- OPERATION is either the whole process of change by which B and the rest of the principles become M or Q, or the use of M and Q in transmuting base metals into silver or gold.
M. --- The PERFECT BEING is the efficient cause, or the form of that into which C and D are changed by way of E, F, G, H, I, K, L, O, P, and has power to perfect imperfect metals.
N. --- FERMENTATION is the wonderful principle by which M is developed into Q. It is brought about by the bland warmth of a gentle fire. Thus M is still wanting in some of the most potent properties of Q, which is the perfect Tincture. Q is capable of unlimited extension, not only quantitatively, but qualitatively. If you can change M into Q, you can multiply and perfect Q indefinitely.
Q. --- Then, is the formative tincture, consummately perfect, and consisting of the equilibrium of all the elements. Hence its virtue is far greater and more potent than that of M. It changes imperfect metals into silver or gold (X or Y), and it is an efficacious remedy for all mental and bodily disease in man, seeing that it expels all disturbing elements; it also makes and keeps men good and kindly disposed towards others. It is, finally, a sovereign cure of the weakness of old age.
Mix one part of gold (X) with twelve parts of Our Water; pound them small; place them in a moderately deep jar; set over it an alembic in the ordinary way; stop up the jar and the apertures of the alembic, up to the beak, with clay; let it dry thoroughly; place it on the oven (not immediately over the coals, but on the iron) in such a way that the whole jar shall be covered by it as far as the alembic, and let the aperture between jar and furnace be also sealed with clay. Then light the fire, and there will come oil into the alembic, together with the water, and will float on the water with an orange colour. Continue the fire till all the water is distilled; let it cool; remove the recipient; separate the oil from the water, and open the jar: you will find a hard, brittle, and pulverizable body. If you like, repeat the whole process, pouring the same or other water over the body; distil as before. The water that comes out will not be so much as at first, and if you repeat the process a third time, there will be hardly any water at all. The body that remains will be a blackish powder, which you calcine in the following way:
If the body be one ounce, pour over it three ounces of Mercury, and pound them together, thus producing an amalgam like butter. Then place it in a glass vessel, and stop up the apertures with clay on the outer side. Set it on a trivet over a gentle fire of three or four coals, stirring it all the time with a small wooden rod, and be careful to shut your mouth and nose, because the fumes are destructive to the teeth. Continue to stir till all the Mercury has disappeared, and there remains a subtle body of more intense blackness. Repeat this even to the third time, till the body is pulverized and intensely black. Then take it, place it in a smaller vessel, and pour on it as much of the aforesaid oil as will moisten it; close the vessel, and let it stand over a lamp; in three days the body will be dried, and it will begin to assume a whitish appearance. Pour on more oil as before; dry by the same fire, and the substance will exhibit an increased whiteness. Repeat the process up to the fourth time; the substance will then have turned of a dazzling whiteness, delicate as an orient pearl of the purest water. Then proceed with our ore, salt, and gum, which must become one. A gentle fire can do no harm, but the warmth of horsedung is better.
The blackness of the substance, when it appears, is not the blackness of ink, but a bright ebony colour. When it has been changed into whiteness, we must then look out for the appearance of the saffron hue, which will in no long time be followed by a most glorious ruby colour. Between the appearance of M (the white colour) and Q (the ruby colour) there should be an interval of thirty days, during which the heat of the fire should be slightly increased, and the vessel kept carefully closed. The substance will then be perfect, and you should carefully preserve it for your own use and that of your friends. One part of it will transmute 2,000 parts of any base metal into its own glorious nature.
To change one drachm of M into Q, add to it three ounces of D and one ounce of C. Subject the whole to gentle coction for thirty days, till it passes through K, after which you will behold perfect. Q, round and red. When you have performed and accomplished all this, you may consider yourself as a great master; and you should render to the great and good God fervent and constant thanks for His unspeakable benefit. Thus I have bestowed upon you a gift, gentle reader, the vast value of which will be understood by generations to come.
S = lead. X = gold. T = tin. Y = silver. V = iron. Z = bronze.
[ Figures Representing These Seven Metals ]
We have drawn the composition of the trees of the grove together; we will now describe their natures one by one, according to the best of our ability. We will, in the first place, begin with those trees upon the left, the scrolls whereof simply encircle the bark, and with their purgation as follows:--- The first tree is hot, dry, red, like red-hot bronze. It becomes moist, dry, and black, like lead; cold and humid, like quicksilver; hot, humid, and saffron-coloured.
The second tree is hot and dry, like glowing brass; it becomes humid and black, like quicksilver; dry and white, like lead; hot, humid, and saffron-coloured, like blood-red gold.
The third tree is hot, dry, and red. It becomes dry and black, like lead; humid and white, like tin or quicksilver; hot, humid, and saffron, like blood-red gold.
The first tree on the right-hand side has a scroll which enters the front and comes out on the other side; it is hot, humid, and saffron-coloured, like red-hot gold. It becomes dry and black, like earthy silver; humid, like silver; hot, dry, and red, like red-hot bronze.
The second tree, which is pierced by its scroll, is dry and red, like red-hot bronze. It becomes dry and black, like lead; humid and white, like quicksilver; hot, humid, and saffron-coloured, like blood-red gold.
The third tree, which is pierced by its scroll, is hot, dry, and red, like red-hot bronze. It becomes dry and black, like lead; humid and white like tin; hot, humid, saffron-coloured, and of a bloody red.
Exposition of the Typical Figures.
Three rules must be carefully observed in our art: first prepare the right substance; then carry on the work continuously, so that it may not be marred by interruption; thirdly, be patient, and follow always in the footsteps of Nature.
Get (as your substance) highly purified Water of Life, and keep it; but do not suppose that the liquid which moistens all things, is the bright and limpid liquid of Bacchus. For while you anxiously look about in out-of-the-way places for extraordinary events, you pass by the sparkling waves of the blessed stream.
Enter the Palace in which are fifteen mansions, where the king, his brow circled with the diadem, sits on a lofty throne, holding in his hand the sceptre of the whole world before him, his son and five servants kneel in robes of different colours, imploring him to bestow upon his son and his servants a share of his power; but he does not even reply to their request.
The son, incited by the servants, stabs the father as he sits on the throne. (Let an amalgam be made with highly purified water, etc.)
In the third picture we see the son catching his father's blood in his robe (which is the second process of our art, already explained in the method).
A grave is dug in the fourth mansion (which is the furnace). Its depth is two hand-breadths, and its width four inches.
In the fifth mansion the son thought to throw his father into the grave, and to leave him there; but (by means of our art) both fell in together.
The sixth mansion is that in which the son still strives to get out, but one (who sprang from them in the second operation) comes, and prevents him from so doing.
While the father and son are in the tomb, which is called the seventh mansion, there follows putrefaction in their ashes, or a very hot bath.
In the eighth mansion, that which happened during the putrefaction is inspected, the vase having become cold, etc.
In the ninth mansion the bones are taken from the tomb. This happens when the whole body has been dissolved by successive solution, which, being done, keep it carefully.
In the tenth mansion, the bones are divided into nine parts, the dissolved substance being subjected to gentle coction for nine days, till a portion of it turns black. Remove this latter, and keep it in another vessel in a hot place. Subject the water to gentle heat for another nine days. Again remove that which has turned black, and put it with the rest. Continue the operation till the water is clear and pure. Let its Water of Life be poured over the black substance in a small glass vessel, so that it shall float over it to the height of an inch, and let it stand nine days over a gentle fire, renewing the water every day, if necessary. (Thus the earth will become clear and white, according to the teaching of the philosophers ; for this earth is putrefied and purified with its water.)
An angel is sent, who casts the bones on the purified and whitened earth (which is now mixed with its seed, and let the whole be placed in a closed jar with its alembic. Let the thicker substance be divided from the water by a more violent fire, and remain as a hard substance at the bottom.)
In the eleventh mansion the servants pray God to restore their king. Henceforth the whole work is concerned with his restoration.
For this purpose a second angel is sent in the twelfth mansion, who places the other part of those bones on the earth (till they are all thickened: then a wonderful thing happens).
Thus, a succession of angels is sent, who cast the first, second, third, and fourth part of the bones on the earth, where they become white, transparent; and firm. The fifth and sixth parts are changed into yellow, and so also with the seventh, eighth, and ninth; the earth of the bones becomes as red as blood or rubies.
Then the king rises from the tomb, full of the grace of God. His body is now all spiritual and heavenly, and he has power to make all his servants kings.
At last he exercises his power upon his servants and his son, placing crowns of gold upon their heads, and making them kings by his grace, since God had given him great power and majesty.
Let no impostor, greedy or wicked person, touch this glorious work with his unclean hands. Let the honest man and him of a wise heart come hither, and him who is capable of exploring the most hidden causes of things.
THE NEW PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
Being a Concordance of the Sages on the Great Treasure, the Stone of the Philosophers, the Arcanum, the Secret of all Secrets, and the Gift of God.
By Peter Bonus, of Ferrara.
Both among ancients and moderns the question whether Alchemy be a real Art or a mere imposture has exercised many heads and pens; nor is it possible for us entirely to ignore the existence of such a dispute. A multiplicity of arguments has been advanced against the truth of our Art; but men like Geber and Morienus, who were best fitted to come forward in its defense, have disdained to answer the caviling attacks of the vulgar. They have not, as a matter of fact, furnished us with anything beyond the bare assertion that the truth of Alchemy is exalted beyond the reach of doubt, We will not follow their example, but, in order to get at the foundation of the matter, we will pass in review the arguments which have been, or may be, set forth on both sides of the question.
In the case of a science which is familiarly known to a great body of learned men, the mere fact that they all believe in it supersedes the necessity of proof. But this rule does not apply to the Art of Alchemy, whose pretensions, therefore, need to be carefully and jealously sifted. The arguments which make against the justice of those claims must be fairly stated, and it will be for the professors of the Art to turn back the edge of all adverse reasoning.
Every ordinary art (as we learn in the second book of the Physics) is either dispositive of substance, or productive of form, or it teaches the use of something. Our Art, however, does not belong to any one of these categories; it may be described indeed as both dispositive and productive, but it does not teach the use of anything. It truly instructs us how to know the one substance exclusively designed by Nature for a certain purpose and it also acquaints us with the natural method of treating and manipulating this substance, a knowledge which may be either practically or speculatively present in the mind of the master. There are other crafts which are not artificial, but natural, such as the arts of medicine, of horticulture, and glass-blowing. They are arts insofar as they require an operator; but they are natural insofar as they are based upon facts of Nature. Such is the Art of Alchemy. Some arts systematize the creations of the human mind, as, for instance, those of grammar, logic, and rhetoric; but Alchemy does not belong to this class. Yet Alchemy resembles other arts in the following respect, that its practice must be preceded by theory and investigation; for before we can know how to do a thing, we must understand all the conditions and circumstances under which it is produced. If we rightly apprehend the cause or causes of a thing (for there often is a multiplicity or complication of causes), we also know how to produce that thing. But it must further be considered that no one can claim to be heard in regard to the truth or falsity of this Art who does not clearly understand the matter at issue; and we may lay it down as a rule that those who set up as judges of this question without a clear insight into the conditions of the controversy should be regarded as persons who are talking wildly and at random.
Reasons Apparently Militating Against The Reality Of Our Art.
It was usual among the ancients to begin with a destructive argument. This custom we will now follow.
Reason First.
Whoever is ignorant of the elements of which any given substance is composed, and of the quantities of each element in such composition, cannot know how to produce that substance. Now, the alchemists are necessarily ignorant of the exact composition of metals: therefore, as the metals are composite substances, it is not possible that the alchemists should know how to produce them.
Reason Second.
Again, if you are unacquainted with the determinate proportion of the elements entering into the composition of any given substance, you cannot possibly produce that substance. I allude to the exact degree of digestion which has taken place in, and the peculiar manner and mode of composition which constitute the specific essence, or form, of any assigned substance, and make it what it is. This specific form of metals can never become known to a human artist. It is one of Nature’s own secrets, and the Art of Alchemy must, therefore, be pronounced not only unknowable, but utterly impossible.
Reason Third.
We are also ignorant of the proper or specific instrument, or means, which Nature uses to produce those peculiar substances defined as metals. We are aware that Nature, in the production of every different substance, uses a certain modified form of digestive heat. But in the case of metals, this digestive heat is not derived from the sun, or, exclusively, from any central fire, for it is inextricably mixed and compounded of the two, and this in a manner no man can imitate. Therefore, Alchemy is impossible.
Reason Fourth.
Moreover, we know that the generation of metals occupies thousands of years. This is the case in Nature’s workshop in the bowels of the earth: hence we see that even if this Art were possible, man’s life would not be long enough for its exercise. Everything requires for its generation a certain predetermined period of time; and we find in the case of animals and vegetables that this period of generation and development cannot be hastened to any considerable extent. It might indeed be said that Art can do in a month what Nature requires a thousand years to accomplish --- by intensifying and exalting the temperature of the digestive warmth. But such a course would defeat its own object, since a greater degree of heat than is required for the development of metals (i.e., an unnatural temperature) would hinder rather than accelerate that development.
Reason Fifth.
Again, the generation of metals, as of all things else, can only be accomplished in a certain place specially adapted to the purpose. Definite peculiar local conditions must be fulfilled if a seed it to spring up and grow; an animal can only be generated and developed in its own proper womb. Now, glass, stone, and earthenware jars and vessels can never take the place of the natural womb of metals in the bosom of the earth. Hence, Alchemy is nothing but a fraudulent pretence.
Reason Sixth.
Once more, that which is effected by Nature alone, cannot be produced artificially; and metals belong to this class of substances. Generation and corruption are the effect of an inward principle, and this inward principle is Nature, which creates the substantial forms of things. Art, on the other hand, is an outward principle, which can only bring about superficial changes.
Reason Seventh.
If Art cannot produce that which is of easy separation, and, therefore, of easy competition, it cannot produce that the separation and composition of which are more difficult. Now, a horse or a dog are easily decomposed, while the putrefaction of metals requires a great length of time. But yet Art cannot produce a horse or a dog; hence it can still less produce metals.
Reason Eighth.
Metals do indeed belong to the same genus or kind; they are all metals, just as a horse and a man are both animals. But as a horse and man are specifically different, and as one species cannot be changed into another, so the various metals are specifically different; and as a dog can never become a an, so neither can one metal be changed into another. This reason and its solution are advanced by Geber.
Reason Ninth.
The principles which stir up the vital spark slumbering in metals are necessarily unknown to the student of Nature. For these principles are supplied by the movements and influences of the stars and heavenly bodies, which are overruled by the Supreme Intelligence, and preside over the generation, corruption, and conservation of species, imparting to everything its own peculiar form and perfection. These influences which determine whether a certain metallic substance shall be gold, silver, etc., no human mind can possibly fix or direct to any given spot. Therefore, etc.
Reason Tenth.
Artificial things bear the same relation to natural things which Art bears to Nature, But as Art is not Nature, neither are artificial things the same as natural things: and artificial gold, even if produced, would no be the same thing as natural gold. For the methods of Nature are inward, they are always one and the same, and never vary; but the methods of Art, on the other hand, vary with the idiosyncrasies of the artist.
Reason Eleventh.
It is easier to destroy than to make thing: but we can hardly destroy gold; how then can we make it?
Reason Twelfth.
The ancient philosophers were in the habit of teaching all the arts and sciences they knew to their disciples, and of declaring them in their books; but of this Art they never mention a word, which proves that it was unknown to them, Moreover, Aristotle tells us that if a man knows a thing he can teach it: but the books of the so-called Alchemistic Sages are full of obscurities and a wantonly perplexing phraseology. This shews that their boasted knowledge was an impudent pretense.
Reason Thirteenth.
Many ancient Sages, as well as kings and princes, who had hundreds of profound scholars at their beck and call, have sought the knowledge of this Art in vain; now, this would not have been the case if it had any real existence.
Reason Fourteenth.
Alchemists say that their one Stone changes all metals into gold; this would mean that it hardens lead and tin, which are softer than gold, and that it softens silver, iron, and bronze, which are harder than gold. But it is impossible that one and the same thing should produce opposite effects. If, indeed, it could produce two such mutually exclusive effects, it would have to do the one per se and the other per accidens --- and either that which is hardened or that which is softened would not be true gold. We should thus have to assume the existence of two Stones, one which hardens and colours per se, and one which softens and colours per se; but this would be in flat contradiction to one of the few clear statements of the Alchemists themselves. And even if there were two different Stones, their difference would be reproduced in their effects, and there would thus result two different kinds of gold, which is impossible.
Reason Fifteenth.
If gold and silver could be evolved out of any metallic substance, they could be prepared most easily out of that which is most akin to them; but as it is impossible to prepare them out of their first principles, viz., quicksilver and sulphur, they cannot be evolved out of metals specifically different from them. For it is clear that out of these two matters all metals are derived and generated; orpiment, sal armoniac, and secondary spirits like marcasite, magnesia, and tutia, being all reducible to these two primary forms. There are seven spirits in Alchemy, the four principal ones, quicksilver, sulphur, orpiment, and sal armoniac, and the three secondary and composite spirits, marcasite, magnesia and tutia; but sulphur and quicksilver include them all. The Stone would have to be obtained either from the metals or from these spirits. But the sages represent the Stone as bearing the same relation to the metals which is borne by form to substance, or, soul to body: hence, it cannot be extracted from such gross things as metals. They do indeed say that by calcining, dissolving, distilling, and coagulating those bodies they purge out all that is gross, and render the metals spiritual and subtle. But they know well enough that any fire violent enough to perform this would kill or destroy the vital germ of the metal.
Nor can so highly spiritual a substance as the Philosopher’s Stone is represented be obtained from the metallic spirits (sulphur and quicksilver). For they must be either fixed or volatile. If they are volatile they are useless: they evaporate when exposed to the action of fire, and leave bodies still more impure and defiled than they were before; or they even cause other bodies to evaporate along with them. If, on the other hand, the spirits in a fixed state are to represent the Stone, they will not be able to accomplish any of those things which the Stone is supposed to encompass. For, in that case, they are hard and petrine, like earth or flint, and thus are unable to enter other bodies and pervade them with their own essence. If they are subjected to the violent action of fire, they become like glass, i.e., they undergo a process of vitrification, and, with their metallic humour, they lose their malleability and all their other metallic properties. Even lead and tin become glass when their metallic humour is burnt out of them, and it is rank absurdity to say that the vitreous humour is malleable, or ever can become so; for it is the metallic humour which renders metals malleable and fusible. Moreover, glass, or anything vitrified, in melting does not amalgamate with other metals, but floats on the surface like oil. Besides, quicksilver in its natural state adheres to all metals, but it does not adhere either to marcasite (which resembles it too closely for such a purpose), nor to glass: this shews, incontrovertibly, that glass is no metal, whether such glass be natural, or some other substance vitrified. Again, glass, or any vitrified substance, when it has been dipped in cold water, or otherwise refrigerated, can be broken, pounded, and converted into powder; but all metals will bend rater than break, because of their greater malleability and the metallic humour which is in them. You can also either engrave or stamp any image upon cold metals and it will retain that image; but glass (unless in a state of fusion) will do nothing of the kind. Thus, it appears that malleability is a property which belongs to metals, and to metals only; and in the various metals this property, with the property of fusibility, exists in different degrees, according to the grade of their digestion and sulphureous admixtion. In glass, too, there are different proportions of fusibility, perspicuity, opacity, and colouring, which depend upon differences of the material used in its manufacture. Only metals in a cold state are capable of a certain degree of liquefaction; glass, on account of its great viscosity, may be liquefied when it is melted in a fiercely heated furnace, but not after refrigeration, because then the aforesaid viscosity disappears. When metal is cold or red hot its viscosity is greatest, and in such a state it can be expanded; but fusion separates its different parts, and then much of this viscosity is lost. With glass the very opposite is the case. Therefore, if by calcinations a metallic spirit becomes vitrified, it is not capable of any further change; and, being fixed, it cannot enter other bodies, or convert them. Therefore, also, if metallic spirits. Which are the very vital principles of gold and silver, cannot evolve them out of metals, nothing else can.
Reason Sixteenth.
Again, the Alchemists appear to say that they do not create metals, but only develop those which are imperfect; they call gold and silver perfect metals, and the rest imperfect. We reply that this is an impossibility. The fact is that everything which has its own substantial form, and all its peculiar properties, is specifically perfect. A horse is perfect as a horse, though it has not the rational nature of a man; and tin and lead are as perfect in their way as gold and silver. Whatever is perfectly that which it was designed to be, the same also is bound so to remain; thus, lead and tin are fully as permanent and enduring as gold and silver.
Reason Seventeenth.
Again, whatever is multiplied by Nature after its kind, in its own species, may be regarded as permanently belonging to that species. And tin and lead, etc., are of this class. They are not an imperfect form of that which we behold perfected in gold and silver. They are base metals, while gold and silver are precious; and a base thing can never develop into a precious thing, just as a goat can never become a horse or a man.
Reason Eighteenth.
Where there is not the same ultimate disposition of elements, there cannot be the same substantial and specific form. Now alchemistic gold and silver cannot exhibit the same ultimate arrangement as natural gold and silver; consequently, they are not the same thing. Hence, if there be such a thing as alchemistic gold, it is specifically different from ordinary gold.
Reason Twentieth.
Anything that is contingent, and liable to chance, cannot be the subject matter of science: for science deals with the necessary, incorruptible, and eternal. The Alchemists themselves say that the secret of their Art seldom becomes known to any one: hence they themselves put their own claims to scientific accuracy out of court.
Reason Twenty-First.
Again, Aristotle (Meteor. IV) --- according to the ancient version --- expressly denies the truth of Alchemy, calling it a sophistical and fantastical pretense --- though some say those words were interpolated by Avicenna (which, however, we do not believe). We beg leave to transcribe Aristotle’s very words: Let me tell the Alchemists that no true change can take place between species; but they can produce things resembling those they desire to imitate; and they can tinge (i.e., colour) with red and orange so as to produce the appearance of gold, and with white so as to produce the appearance of silver (tin or lead). They can also purge away the impurities of lead (so as to make it appear gold or silver); yet it will never be anything but lead; and even though it looks like silver, yet its properties will still be those of lead. So these people are mistaken, like those who take armoniac salt for common salt --- which seem the same and yet are in realty very much diverse. But I do not believe that the most exquisite ingenuity can possibly devise any means of successfully eliminating the specific difference (i.e., the substantial form) of metals. The properties and accidents which constitute the specific difference are not such as to be perceived with the senses; and since the difference is not cognizable (i.e., not sensuously perceptible), how can we know whether they have had it removed or not? Moreover, the composition of the various metallic substances is different, and, therefore, it is impossible that one should be changed into another, unless they be first reduced to their common prime substance. But this cannot be brought about by mere liquefaction, though it may appear to be done by the addition of extraneous matter.
By these words the philosopher seems to imply that there can be no such thing as a pure Alchemistic Art, that which passes current under the name being mere fanciful and deceptive talk. From his remarks we elicit five reasons which (apparently) militate against the truth of our Art.
Reason Twenty-Second.
[The First of Aristotle]
He who only changes the accidents of things, does not change them specifically, and, as the substantial form remains the same, we cannot say that any real alteration has been effected. Now, the transformation (if any) which takes place in Alchemy is of this kind; therefore, we may confidently assert that it is not real. Alchemists may, as it were, wash out the impurities of lead and in, and make them look like gold and silver; but in their substantial form they are still neither better nor worse than lead and tin. Certain foreign ingredients (colouring matter, etc.) may make people fancy that they see real gold and silver before them. But those are the same people who could not tell the difference between common salt and salt of ammonia. Nevertheless, these two, though generically the same, exhibit considerable specific differences, and no skilled master of chemistry could possibly confound them.
Reason Twenty-Third.
[The Second of Aristotle]
Any transformation that does not involve the destruction of the substantial and specific pre-existent form, is no real transformation at all, but a mere juggling pretense. Now this exactly described the performances of Alchemy.
Reason Twenty-Fourth.
[The Third of Aristotle]
It is impossible for us to know whether a thing which in itself is incapable of being perceived by our senses has been removed or not. Now, the specific differences of metals belong to this category: therefore, Alchemy falsely claims the power of accomplishing a thing which in reality transcends all human possibility and knowledge. The external characteristics with which we are acquainted in metals are not those which constitute their inward and essential nature, but their accidents, and properties, and passivities, which are alone subject to the cognizance of our senses. If this mysterious and deeply hidden something could be touched and handled, we might hope to destroy, or abolish, and change it. But, as it is, such an attempt must be considered utterly hopeless.
Reason Twenty-Fifth.
[The Fourth of Aristotle]
Things which are not mixed in the same elementary proportions, and are not compounded after the same manner, cannot be regarded as belonging to an identical species. Now, this relation does not exist between natural gold and the metals which Alchemy claims to transmute into that metal. Consequently, they cannot become real gold. The fact is that we are ignorant of the true composition of the precious metals --- and how can we bring about a result the nature of which is not clear to us?
Reason Twenty-Sixth
[The Fifth of Aristotle]
One species can only be transmuted into another by returning into the first substance common to both, before each was differentiated in the assumption of its own substantial form. This first substance must then be developed into the other species. But such a complicated operation the Alchemists fail to achieve. They do not reduce the metals to the first substance; hence there is with them no true generation, nor is there any genuine corruption, but only a spurious manipulation of accidents. They melt the metal in their furnace, and then add to it certain prepared chemical substances which change its appearance; but no one can say that there has been a true transformation. So long as they do not reduce the metal to its first substance, and then introduce into it another substantial form, it will still be the same metal, whatever alterations they may seem to effect in its outward appearance. The original substance and first principle of gold and silver are quicksilver and sulphur. To this substance they cannot reduce any metal by bare liquefaction. Hence their transmutation of metals is never true, but only sophistical. If you wish to generate a man out of meat and vegetables, and other food that is eaten, this food will first have to become blood, and the blood will have to undergo a chemical change into seed, before it can be available for purposes of generation. In the same way, if any metal is to become gold and silver, it must first become quicksilver and sulphur. The Alchemists may indeed say that there is between the metals no specific, but only an accidental difference. They suppose that the base metals are in a diseased condition, while gold and silver exhibit the healthy state of the metallic substance; and thus they contend that lead and tin can be converted into gold and silver by a mere alterative motion, just as an alterative motion (produced by some medicine) may convert a diseased into a healthy man. But this is equivalent to the affirmation that, apart from the morbid matter which they contain, all metals are actually gold, and here is an assertion which is impossible to substantiate. If all metals have the same substantial form, they have the same properties and passivities; for properties and passivities are directly the outcome of the substantial form. Hence all metals would have the same properties and qualities (whether active or passive) as gold. But this is not the case; for they do not abide the test of fire as gold does, nor have they the same comforting medicinal effect, which proves that the difference between them is not merely accidental, but specific. Yet they might again advance that, though all metals have the same substantial qualities and properties, because these are kept inactive or obscured by the morbid matter; as, for instance, when a man suffers from epilepsy, or apoplexy, or madness, he cannot perform the operations of a complete man; and if a women suffer from contraction of the womb, or syncope, she may have the substantial form of a woman, and yet she cannot exercise all the functions of a woman. They further say that, as in the human subject this incapacity is removed by the alterative action of some medicine, so in metals, the full effects of the substantial form (which is that of gold) may be brought out by alchemistic action. But the substantial form is not complete until the development is fully accomplished, and if the base metals are not fully developed, they can have no real substantial form, let alone that of gold and silver. And if a thing have not the substantial form with anything else, it cannot have, even in a latent condition, the properties and qualities characteristic of that thing, Nothing can have the peculiar qualities of a man that has not the form (i.e., the essential characteristics) of a man. The form of gold consists in the brightness which the sulphur receives from the purifying quicksilver indigestion. This brightness belongs only to gold and silver, or even to gold exclusively, as will be shewn. It is a sign that the development of these precious metals is complete, and the fact that the other metals do not possess it also shews that they cannot have the substantial form or essential characteristics of gold. Hence the comparison of these base metals to diseased bodies is false and misleading. We have thus demonstrated that the claims of Alchemy are frivolous, vain, and impossible. We might adduce other reasons, but we believe those already given to be sufficient.
Now We Will Proceed To Prove The Truth Of The Art Of Alchemy.
We may prove the truth of our Art ---
(1) By the testimony of the Sages.
(2) By the most forcible arguments.
(3) By analogy, and manifest examples.
Aristotle, in the Dialectics, says that every master has a right to speak authoritatively with reference to his own art. According to this rule, it is the Sages, and the Sages only, that ought to be consulted with reference to the truth of Alchemy. Now, we find that ancient philosophers, who have written with remarkable clearness and force on other arts and sciences, have given their testimony to the truth and authenticity of this Art in books which they have devoted thereto. They have described it as an art which regulates natural action, working upon a proper matter, towards the attainment of a design of Nature’s own conceiving, to which also Nature cannot attain without the aid of the intelligent artist, the same being further performed, as it is said, after one only method. Hence Hermes: It is true without falsehood, certain, and most true; that which is above is even as that which is below, and that which is below is like unto that which is above, for the accomplishment of the wonders of one thing. And Morienus: If, therefore, thou shalt rightly consider those things which I shall say unto thee, as also the testimonies of the ancients, well and fully shalt thou know that we agree in all things, and so all of us reveal the same truths. This was the deliberate conviction of Hermes, in his Secreta, who is styled the father and prophet of the Sages, of Pythagorus, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Aristotle, Zeno, Heraclitus, Diogenes, Lucas, Hippocrates, Hamec, Thebit, Geber, Rhasis, Haly, Morienus, Theophilus, Parmenides, Mellisus, Empedocles, Abohaly, Abinceni, Homer, Ptolomeus, Virgil, Ovid, and many other philosophers and lovers of truth, whose names would be too tedious to record. Of most of these we have seen and studied the works, and can testify that they were, without a single exception, adepts, and brothers of this most glorious order, and that they knew what they were speaking about. Hermes, in his second book, says: My son, reflect on all that you hear, for I do not suppose that you are deprived of reason, etc. Rhasis (in his book on the Perfect Magistery), exhorting us unto a like earnestness, bids us read incessantly the writings of philosophy that we may be her sons, and get understanding in this arcane magistery. For he who does not read books cannot apprehend the details of our Art; he who knows nothing about the theory of our Art, will find its practice very difficult. Geber, in the Prologue of his Sum of Perfection, exhorts the student to pore over his volumes by day and by night, and to resolve them diligently in his mind, that so he may perceive the drift of our directions. Galen declares that theory and practice mutually correct and supplement each other, True theory is borne out by practice; false theory is shamed and disgraced by it. Moreover, when the science is obscure, and has been handed down after the manner of a dark tradition, there is all the more reason for reference to the adepts of the past therein. For which reason, says the philosopher in his second book of Ethics: In things which are obscure it is necessary to have recourse to open testimonies. So also Morienus: While every thing is distinguished according to its effects, the facts confirmed by the testimony of many. Rhasis (c. 70) bids us pin our faith to the ancient sages. Abohaly, that is to say, Avicenna, in his book on Medicine, and the chapter in which he discuses the confinement of fevers to certain places, says that where they do not occur, the people would not therefore be justified in supposing that they do not exist. In the same way, no man in his senses would deny the truth of Alchemy for the very insufficient reason that he himself is ignorant of it: such a person would be content with the authority of weighty names like Hermes, Hippocrates, and numerous others. There are many reasons why the master conceal this art. But if any one denies its existence on the ground that he is ignorant of it, he is like someone who has been shut up all his life in a certain house, and therefore denies that the world extends beyond the four walls of his habitation. There is not really any need to advance any arguments to establish the actuality of our art, for the art itself is the best proof of its own existence; and being securely lodged in the stronghold of knowledge, we might safely despise the contradiction of the ignorant. Nevertheless, we will adduce a few arguments to prove the strength of our position. At the same time, we ask the reader to remember that our best and strongest arguments are based on facts which we are not at liberty to use.
Arguments [Particularly Two Strong Ones] In Favor Of Our Most Glorious Art.
It is most difficult to establish the claims of this Art argumentatively. Aristotle tells us that, in some cases, certain arguments are so nicely balanced as to leave the mid in a sate of uncertainty as to what is the exact truth; in other cases [he says] the subject matter hardly admits of a logical demonstration. To this latter class belongs the case of Alchemy. In all operative sciences (as Aristotle sets forth) the truth of a proposition ought to be sewn, not by logical argument, but by ocular demonstration. The appeal should be not to the intellect, but to the senses. For particulars belong to the domain of sense, while universals belong to the domain of reason. If we are unable to convey to any one an ocular proof of our Art, this fact must not be regarded as casting a slur on our veracity. The difficulty of our task is enhanced by the circumstance that we have to speak of our Art to the ignorant and scornful, and are thus in the position of a painter who should attempt to explain nice shades and differences of colour to the colour-blind; or of a musician who should discourse sweet harmony to the deaf. Every one, says Aristotle, is able to form a correct opinion only of those things which are familiarly and accurately known to him; but he who denies that snow is white cannot have any eyes in his head. How can any one discover the truth in regard to any science, if he lacks the sense to distinguish the special province of matter, or the material relations, with which that science deals? Such people need to exercise faith even to become aware of the existence of our Art. Pythagoras, in the Turba Philosophorum, says that those who are acquainted with the elements will not be numbered among deniers. A doctor who desires to prove that a certain medicine will produce a certain effect in a diseased condition of the human body, must substantiate his position by practical experiment. For instance, some one suffers from a super-abundance of red colour in the veins of the stomach and liver, and I say that the cure is an evacuation after digestion. If I wished to discover what medicine would produce this effect, I would say: Everything that, after digestion, produces an evacuation of bile, will heal the patient. Now, I know that rhubarb or scamonea will produce this effect; therefore, rhubarb or scamonea will be the right remedy to choose. Nevertheless, the truth of my assertion could be satisfactorily proven only by means of a practical experiment. In all these matters, as Hamec says, nothing short of seeing a thing will help you to know it. If you wish to know that pepper is hot and that vinegar is cooling, that colocynth and absinthe are bitter, that honey is sweet, and that aconite is poison; that the magnet attracts steel, that arsenic whitens brass, and that tutia turns it of an orange colour, you will, in every one of these cases, have to verify the assertion by experience. It is the same in Geometry, Astronomy, Music, Perspective, and other sciences with a practical scope and aim. A like rule applies with double force to Alchemy, which undertakes to transmute the base metals into gold and silver. Whatsoever has the power to transmute imperfect and complete metals has the power to make gold and silver. Now, this quality is possessed by the Stone which the philosophers make known to us. It is plain that there are but two perfect metals, namely, gold and silver; just as there are but two perfect luminaries, namely, sun and moon. The other metals are imperfect and in complete, and whosoever educes them to perfection, the same also converts them into gold and silver. The truth and justice of this claim, like all other propositions of a practical nature, has to be demonstrated by a practical experiment, and in no other way can it be satisfactorily shewn. But such a practical demonstration would, on the other hand, once for all put an end to the controversy, and convincingly demonstrate to every well-regulated mind the truth of the Art by which it is accomplished. Find our Art, says Galen, and you will have proved its reality, which is performed not by the first principles of the Art, but by its operations.
It is to be borne in mind that this Art is the minister and follower of Nature. Hence the principles of Alchemy are twofold, natural and artificial. The natural principles are the causes of the four elements, of the metals, and all that belongs to them. The artificial principles are, according to Geber, eight in number: Sublimation, Separation, Distillation, Calcination, Dissolution, Coagulation, Fixion, and Ceration, besides all the tests, signs, and colours by which we know whether these operations have been properly performed or not. The tests of gold are Inceration, Cementation, Ignition, Fusion, Exposure to corroding vapours, Mixture with some solvent, etc. But there is also another high and divine principle which is the key and connecting link between all the others, without which it is impossible to accomplish our work, which also before all others ought to possess the mind of the student. That which is fixed destroys the specific form of that which is volatile, so as to do away with its volatile properties. If the volatile substance evaporates together with the fixed, the whole experiment is spoiled; but if the fixed retains the volatile and protects it from evaporation, our work is perfected. We know that substances whose root is earth and water can be dissolved and become liquid, but the adept has it in his power to preserve them. What is said about this principle in the books of the Sages is without doubt figuratively spoken by means of type and allegory, and therefore it is mere presumption on the part of an outsider to attempt to formulate an argument against our Art out of anything that the Sages have said.
The second argument is as follows. Anything in which the specific properties, qualities, and operations of a certain substance are observed, is of the same nature with that substance. Now, we find in the gold and silver of Alchemy all the distinctive peculiarities of natural gold; consequently, it is natural gold. We do not know the substantial form of anything; we do know its qualities, properties, operations, and accidents; consequently, it is in regard to these particulars that we must look for agreement, because all our knowledge necessarily has a sensuous or perceptive basis. The substantial form, on the other hand, is nothing but a convenient intellectual abstraction. In determining the nature of anything, we must found our judgment on its practical manifestations. We say that whatever performs all the functions of an eye, is an eye; whatever does not is not really an eye, but only the shadow or image of an eye. A wooden saw is not a saw, but only a representation of a saw, etc., etc. I maintain, then, that we know a thing by its accidents; and as the substance of all metals is homogeneous, we may safely apply this rule to metallic substances. Every metal, then, which exhibits all the qualities of gold, orange colour, fusibility, malleability, indestructibility, homogeneous nature, and great density, must be regarded as gold, and it would be mere sophistry to try and make out that it is anything else. If the gold of Alchemy were not the same as natural gold, our detractors would be bound to shew that the very same specific properties can co-exist with substantial forms of an opposite and contradictory nature --- a task which they will find it very difficult to accomplish. This reasoning is borne out by several most important passages in the works of Plato and Aristotle [Libell. De Secret. Secreto, cap. De Lapidibus Pretiosis]. There are also other arguments which prove the truth of our Art, which will be set forth in our chapters on the principles, and on the generation of metals, and their transmutation.
The Truth Of Our Art Proved By Analogy
Something closely analogous to the generation of Alchemy is observed in the animal, vegetable, mineral, and elementary world. Nature generates frogs in the clouds, or by means of putrefaction in dust moistened with rain, by the ultimate disposition of kindred substances. Avicenna tells us that a calf was generated in the clouds, amid thunder, and reached the earth in a stupefied condition. The decomposition of a basilisk generates scorpions. In the dead body of a calf are generated bees, wasps in the carcass of an ass, beetles in the flesh of a horse, and locusts in that of a mule. These generations depend on the fortuitous combination of the same elements by which the animal or insect is ordinarily produced. Aristotle (de Animal., 6), however, says, that these creatures do not belong to the same order as those generated in the ordinary way, and have not the same substantial form. We, on the other hand, maintain (and we are sure of having all common-sense people in agreement with us), that ants are ants, flies, flies, and spiders, spiders, in whatever way they originate. For in the vegetable world Nature produces out of decomposed matter, cabbages, parsley, and pumpkins, which afterwards exhibit the same flowers, fruit, and seed as those evolved in the ordinary way, and are also propagated in the same manner. We maintain that there are some things which are propagated by generation only, such as men, vipers, whales, and palm-trees; other things by putrefaction only, as lice, fleas, grass, earthworms, and similar imperfect existences; some things are propagated in both ways, like mice, beetles, wasps, etc. Everything depends, as we have said, on a certain disposition of elements and rearrangement of atoms; in this way a wild vine may become a good one by transplantation and the skill of the husbandman (as Aristotle tells us); moreover, the same philosopher vouches for the truth of the observation that good plants may often be reared from inferior seed, if there be a change of climate and other outward conditions.
The same law holds good in the mineral world, though not to quite so great an extent. Thunderbolts are formed in the clouds, and iron darts, amidst terrible explosions. These mineral substances are produced, according to Aristotle, (Meteor., IV end), by the rapid extinction and dessication of atmospherical fire. It is said that near Vergen there fell from the sky a piece of iron weighing 150 tons, which was so hard that it long resisted all attempts to work it up into swords and other iron implements. The Arabs relate that the Alemanic blades, which are very hard and well tempered, are fashioned of this kind of iron. Such great masses of metal are either formed suddenly by the fierce action of burning heat on a large lump of viscous clay, or, little by little, through the agency of some more gradual cause. There are certain places in which water, as it wells forth, is changed into stones of diverse colours; and we know there exists in the earth the mineral power of congealing water. We are also told that vegetables and animals may be converted into stone by a certain petrifying mineral action. Moreover, there is a spot in Arabia which imbues everything with its own colour. There the bread of Corascenus was changed into a stone, and yet retained its own colour. The same kind of spontaneous generation is also sometimes observed in the case of elements. By striking two hard stones together we produce fire; by boiling water, air is created; by the condensation of air, we obtain water; by the distillation of water, we become possessed of a residue of earth. All these examples we quote, not because they necessarily admit of verification, but in order to make our meaning plain to the uninitiated, and to shew, by analogous reasoning, the possibility of our art. To the uninitiated such confirmatory evidence, drawn from analogous facts, must seem both childish and unnecessary. Nor is there any process in Nature which is more than distantly and partially analogous to the operation of our most blessed Stone. The closest analogy is furnished by smoke, which may become fixed or condensed as soot; for here a spirit, as it were, evaporates from the fire, and assumes a corporeal form. The same may be said of the formation of tartar in good wine. For all vapour is spiritual in its nature, that is to say, its property is volatile. Out of dry vapours are generated dry things, and from humid vapours come moist substances; the digestion and proportionate commixture of both these kinds produce the diversity of all generated species, according to the exigency of their nature. And as these vapours, whether dry or moist, are actively fugitive and ascending, so are they potentially permanent and resting. If the alchemist by the preparation of this proper matter in a proper vessel, paying due attention to the significance of the sequence of colours, can obtain that which constitutes the essence of gold in a concentrated volatile or spiritual form, he can pervade with it every atom of a base metal, and thus transmute it into gold. This action of foreign bodies any one can observe on the surface of metals; tutia imparts to bronze the colour of gold, orpiment and arsenic colour it white like silver; the fumes of Saturn congeal quicksilver; the rind of the pomegranate converts iron into steel, and the fumes of burnt hair give silver an orange tinge. Let us suppose the metals to be penetrated by some more powerful and all-pervading agent in their very inmost parts, and throughout all their molecules --- and we have something very closely resembling the alleged action of the Philosopher’s Stone. The spirits of metals potentially contain their bodies, and this potentiality may at any moment become actual, if the artist understands, and knows how to imitate, Nature’s methods of working.
A General Determination Upon The Difficulty Of The Question, With The Elucidation Thereof.
Concerning this admirable, excellent, divine, and most secret Art, it is a matter of no ordinary difficulty to satisfactorily resolve the question of the actuality thereof, but, as appears from Aristotle, it is absurd to prove the existence of Nature, or to argue the possibility of what is know. Our subject is the transmutation of metals into true gold and silver by the skill of art. It deals not alone with the formation of metals in the earth but of their manufacture out of the earth. Alchemy is the Art by which the principles, causes, activities, properties, and affections of metals are thoroughly apprehended; and by means of this knowledge those metals which are imperfect, incomplete, mixed, and corrupt, and therefore base, are transmuted into gold and silver. We have here, as in medicine, practice founded upon sound and well-tested speculative knowledge; and here also, as in medicine, we can be practically successful, only if our knowledge be strictly in accordance with the facts of Nature. Alchemy is an operative science, and produces effects by supplying natural conditions, e.g., by the action of fire. Medicine is either preventative or curative; it either teaches us the conditions of health, and instructs us how to avoid disease, or, when we are ill, it provides the exact remedy which our disease requires. Alchemy has no need of conservative or preventative action; but it instructs us how to restore and cure, as it were, the diseases of metals, and to bring them back to a state of perfect health, in which state all metals are either silver or gold. The difficulties of our Art are great, especially on account of the disagreement which apparently prevails amongst its most authoritative exponents. The second difficulty of our Art is that of carrying out practically the clearest and most straightforward printed directions. This difficulty might be got over by watching the operations of some great master; but in the nature of the case, only few can enjoy so high a privilege. The third difficulty consists in the fantastic tricks and absurdly barren devices of fraudulent professors of this Art, in consequence of which many find it impossible to believe in the reality of our operations. And the claims of the Art itself appear so miraculous, and so far exalted above the ordinary course of Nature, that the vulgar herd are of necessity led to regard the Alchemist as a kind of sorcerer or magician, and to place his pretensions in the same class with those of the man who professes to work signs and wonders. These are but a few of the difficulties in which the study of our Art is involved; and if there be so many obstacles in the way of its investigation, how much more difficult must be the discovery of its methods?
Nevertheless, I stoutly maintain that the Art of Alchemy is clear and true, and founded upon Nature; that its products are as truly silver and gold as the precious metals which are produced in the bowels of the earth; and that I am fully prepared to substantiate all these assertions in the following chapters, and to place them beyond the reach of reasonable doubt. We will triumphantly rebut the attacks of Aristotle, and refute all other objections, putting them to flight with the all-prevailing weapons of truth and reason. Aristotle in Nicom. Ethic. VII, says that if all difficulties are solves, and the contrary of every objection proved to be true, you can feel that you have established your position, but your refutation will be all the more convincing if you point out the cause of your opponent’s error. If, however, any man denies first principles, there is no possibility of reasoning with him; on the other hand, you can reason with a man who acknowledges first principles, and only arrives at erroneous results by a fallacious process of ratiocination. It is to this class of our opponents that we address the following statement of our position.
Explanatory Of Our Method Of Procedure In Determining This Question.
But in order that the truth of this Art may be fully known, we will begin by citing the authority, and quoting the words of, the ancient Sages, subsequently resolving any doubt or difficulty which they may suggest. In every case we will take care to state our reasons. Any one that would write about Alchemy must know its terms, with its differences and its scope; and it is their ignorance of these particulars which has led many critics hastily to condemn our claims. Those who are ignorant of any science, are like the spectators who can distinguish neither the persons nor their gestures on the stage. A blind man might as well discourse about colours, and criticize the merits of a picture --- a deaf man might as well set up as a judge of some musical composition --- as an uninformed person presume to deliver judgment on the claims of the Art of Alchemy.
The scope and aim of that Art we have already defined. It is an operative science, of which the object is to transmute base metals into gold and silver. It is concerned with the principles, causes, properties and affections of metals. Principles are the efficient and final cause, which are both outward. Causes are described as the substance and form, which are the internal causes beginning to the very thing itself. Properties are the peculiar active operations of the metals (e.g., the strengthening virtue of gold). Affections are the qualities of metals in a passive state, e.g., of fire, and soon. The essential differences between the metals we do not know: hence we allege in their place the properties and accidents peculiar to each. It should further be remembered that no natural agent ceases from its action in a given substance until its end has been attained. In all metals quicksilver is understood for the substance, and sulphur for the active principle which supplies form to the matter; no metal is, therefore, complete and perfect, from which the sulphur has not become separated; and since this is the case only in gold, gold alone represents the first and true intention of Nature with regard to metals; all other metals still contain an admixture of sulphur, and are imperfect. The incomplete metals are called mixed metals, because here the agent is still mixed with the substance; and this sulphur is one of the great occasions of the corruptibility of metals: it blackens them, and causes them to evaporate and be burned in the fire, but gold ever enjoys immunity from this defect, whether in or out of the fire. The transmutation of metals into gold, then, must consist in the elimination of this sulphur, which result is brought about only by the Philosopher’s Stone, and by that instantly, for it acts both within and without, the exterior alteration being followed by the interior transmutation for the generation of the form of gold. Alchemy (i.e., the Elixir of Alchemy) is a corporeal substance, made of one thing, by the operation of one thing, says Lilium. In medicine we apply the same remedy which it prescribes; and a like analogy we must be permitted to follow in our most glorious Art of Alchemy.
After Shewing The Two Chief Difficulties Of Alchemy, We Proceed To Exhibit All The Different Modes of These Difficulties.
To one who is acquainted with the scope and meaning of this Art, it is not strange that only few attain to our knowledge; to him the wonder is rather that any man has ever succeeded in discovering its methods.
The First Cause of Difficulty
The achievements of our Art seem miraculous rather than in accordance with the ordinary working of Nature. Hence Sages like Hermes, Barsenus, Rhasis, Rosinus, and others, tell us that it is only by Divine inspiration, or by ocular demonstration, that the student can understand the directions of his teachers. Morienus warns us that whoever would study this Art must know the other sciences, and especially Logic and Dialectic, as the Sages always express themselves in veiled and metaphorical phraseology. Theophilus says that the only way of apprehending the meaning of the Sages is by constant reference to experiment as well as reading [Turba]. He who bends his back over our books (says Barensus), and does not sit at the feet of Nature, will die on the wrong side of the frontier. The first great difficulty, then, is the obscurity of the directions found in the books of the Sages.
Second Cause of Difficulty
The second difficulty consists in the apparent disagreement of those who profess to exercise our Art at the present day. Amongst those persons are observed a great diversity of method, and a considerable variety even in the choice of their substance. The mistakes of some of the professors of Alchemy make men doubt the genuineness of its claims.
Third Cause of Difficulty
Again, there are very few that actually possess the Stone. The pretensions of those who boast that it is in their possession discredit the Art in the eyes of the multitude.
Fourth Cause of Difficulty
The expressions used by the different Masters often appear to be in open contradiction one to another; moreover, they are so obscurely worded that of ten readers each one would understand them in a different sense. Only the most ingenious and clear-sighted men have a chance of finding their way through this pathless thicket of contradictions and obscure metaphors.
Fifth Cause of Difficulty
Another difficulty is the way in which the substance of our Stone is spoken of by the Sages. They call it the vilest and commonest of all things, which is found among the refuse in the street and on the dunghill; yet they add that it cannot be obtained without considerable expense. They seem to say in the same breath that it is the vilest and that it is the most precious of all substances. One man affirms that it is so costly that much gold will not buy it; and, on the other hand, Daucus tells us that we are to beware foolishly spending gold in the pursuit of this Magistery.
Moreover, from what has been said, we can see that all the names of this Stone are fictitious and misleading. This indeed is the constant practice of the Sages, as Rosinus adds, though he makes an exception of Hermes, who says: Know that no true Tincture is obtained except from the Red Stone. But most of the directions which we find in the books of the Sages cause us to mix the true substance with many foreign ingredients, and thus to mar our work. How, then, shall we, by considering their works only superficially, and according to their literal interpretation, fathom the profound knowledge required for the practical operations of this Magistery? If the base metals are to attain the fixed nature of gold, says Rhasis, we shall need much labour, much meditation, much patient study, and constant reference to the works of the Sages to the facts of Nature, which alone can explain them.
Sixth Cause of Difficulty
The tropical expressions and equivocations, the allegories, and metaphors, employed by the Sages, also create a most serious obstacle in the path of the student. Hence investigation, and the practical operations which should be based upon it, are embarrassed at every step with doubt and perplexity of the most tantalizing kind. We must not wonder, therefore, that the students and professors of Alchemy are peculiarly liable to error, since it is often all but impossible to do more than guess at the meaning of the Sages. At times it would almost look as if this Art could be acquired only by the living voice of the Master, or by direct Divine inspiration.
Seventh Cause of Difficulty
Every other science and art is closely reasoned; the different propositions follow each other in their logical order; and each assertion is explained and demonstrated by what has gone before. But in the books of our Sages the only method which prevails is that of chaos; there is everywhere studied obscurity of expression; and all the writers seem to begin, not with first principles, but with that which is quite strange and unknown to the student. The consequence is that one seems to flounder along through these works, with only here and there a glimmering of light, which vanishes as soon as one approaches it more closely. Such is the opinion of Rosinus, Anaxagoras, and other Sages.
Eighth Cause of Difficulty
The way in which the Sages speak of the vessel in which the decoction is to take place, is very perplexing. They give directions for preparing and using many different kinds of vessels, and yet in the same breath they tell us, after the manner of Lilium, that only one vessel is needed for the entire process of decoction! It is true that the words of the Sages about the one invariable vessel become plain as soon as we understand the Art, but to the beginner they must appear very perplexing.
Ninth Cause of Difficulty
The proper duration of our Magistery, and the day and hour of is nativity and generation, are also shrouded in obscurity. Its conception, indeed, takes place in a single moment; here we are to notice the conjunction of the purified elements and the germ of the whole matter; but if we do not know this, we know nothing of the entire Magistery. There are certain signs which occur with great regularity, at their own proper times and seasons, in the development of this Stone; but if we do not understand what they are, we are as hopelessly in the dark as before. The same remark applies to the exact proportions in which the different elements enter into its composition. The time required for the whole operation is stated by Rhasis to be one year; Rosinus fixes it at nine month; others at seven; others at forty, and yet others at eighty, days. Still we know that as the hatching of a chicken is always accomplished in the same period, so a certain number of days or months, and no more, must be required for this work. The difficulty connected with the time also involves the secret of the fire, which is the greatest mystery of the Art. The day when the Stone will be finished may be predicted from certain signs, if they are only known to us, just as the day when an infant will be born may be predicted from the time when it first begins to move in its mother’s womb. These critical periods, however, are nowhere clearly and straightforwardly declared to us; and there is all the more need of care, vigilance, and attention on our part.
Tenth Cause of Difficulty
The Sages appear to vary quite as much in their descriptions of the substance from which this Stone is elaborated. In order to mislead the ignorant and the foolish, some name arsenic, some sulphur, some quicksilver, some blood, some eggs, some hair, some dung, etc., etc. In reality, there is only one substance of our Stone; nothing else upon earth contains it; it is that which is most like gold, and from which gold itself is generated, viz., pure quicksilver, that is, not mixed with anything else, as we shall shew further on. The substance of Alchemy --- though called by a perplexing variety of names --- is the substance of Nature, and the first substance of metals, from which Nature herself evolves them. Were it otherwise, it would be impossible for Art to imitate Nature.
Aristotle says that the more unity and simplicity of subject-matter and method there are in an art, the more easily it is known; and when we once possess the necessary preliminary knowledge, his words apply with remarkable force to our Art. That Art would be mere child’s play, if the Sages had expounded it as simply and plainly as they might have done. But let us tell ignorant professors of Alchemy that the more complicated and sophisticated their methods, the more hopelessly at variance with the simple and all-prevailing truth of Nature.
Our Art Is Shewn To Be One, Not Only In Its Substance, But In All Other Aspects. The Unity Of The Philosopher’s Stone Is Maintained In Its Substance, And In Its Method of Operation, Which Admits of No Foreign Elements.
The substance of our Art is one, and admits of no variation or substitute, and so also the mode of our Art is one. The unity of our Art is proved by the fact that, thought the Sages exhibit considerable diversity in their methods of expressing themselves, yet they all understand each other. The very fact that Greek understands Greek, and Latin Latin, and Arab Arab, proves the unity of each language; and it is the same with our Art. Amidst the greatest apparent diversity there is a wonderful substantial agreement in the works of the Sages; they differ in words, names, and metaphors, but they agree in reference to things. By one way, says Lilium, by one thing, by one disposition is our whole Magistery accomplished. So Alphidius tells us that we want only one thing, viz., water, etc. With these sayings agree the words of Mahometh, Morienus, Geber, Rhasis, Solomon, the son of David, Senior, and Mundus, in the Turba, who says: Nature delights in the same nature, kind in kind, kind overcomes kind, kind contains kind, and yet they are not different kinds, or several, but only one kind, having within itself those properties by which it excels all other things. So Haly remarks in his Mysteries: Know, brother, that our whole Magistery is one Stone, which is self-sufficient, is not mixed with anything else, proceeds from one root, becomes several things, and yet again is restored to its unity. This one thing is described by the Sages in many ways, and thus it has been supposed to be many things. But such mistaken impression are characteristic of those who profess our Art without really knowing anything about it.
Instances Against The Said Unity
It appears indeed as if there were many roads to our Art, and not one only. Geber avers that there are many ways to produce one effect. The same opinion is expressed by Rhasis in his book on the Perfect Magistery, where he speaks of bodies and spirits, and their purification and divers and manifold composition. We answer, as before, that there is only one way and one substance, as shall be abundantly demonstrated hereafter. The words of Rhasis are indeed true, but in our substance body and spirits, and their purification and divers and manifold composition. We answer, as before, that there is only one way and one substance, as shall be abundantly demonstrated hereafter. The words of Rhasis are indeed true, but in our substance body and spirit are the same thing in different stages of development. And so, whether body or spirit, that which is perfectly prepared, the same is the pure and one Elixir. It is in like manner with regard to plurality of methods: food nourishes, but the stages by which this result is brought about are many, as every physiologist will tell you. If there seem to be many methods, they are all only aspects and subdivisions of our one method. The White Stone and the Red Stone, the medicine of the third order, as Geber tells us it should be called, are really the same thing; the White Stone is only less perfect than the Red. Nature, says Florus, is one, and if any man strays away from her guidance, he mars his labour. You do not require many things, but only one thing which has a father and mother, and its father and mother feed and nourish it, nor can it be distinguished in any way from its father and mother. From the one substance is evolved, first the White, and then the Red Tincture; there is one vessel one goal, and one method. It is true that in the books of the Sages the impression is conveyed as if there were many substances and many methods: but they only mean different aspects or stages of the same thing. Solution, Sublimation, Distillation, Coagulation, Calcination, etc., are misleading terms; the distinctions are logical, or verbal, rather than real. Pythagoras tells us that Coction, Calefaction, Dealbation, Attrition, Affusion, and Tinging are only different stages of the same operation in the fire. There are many names, but one regimen.
The First Distinction Sheweth That This Art Is Natural and Divine, And That By It The Ancient Sages Foretold The Future Miracles of God.
Our Art is partly natural and partly supernatural, or Divine. In changing the base metals into gold and silver by the projection of the Stone, it follows (by an accelerated process) the method of nature, and therefore is natural. But if we consider the digestion and generation, the conception and origin, of the Stone, we have, in Sublimation, the creation of a soul through the mediation of the spirit, and rising heavenward with the spirit. At another stage we have the soul and spirit permanently fixed at the end of the Sublimation; and this happens through the addition of the Hidden Stone, which is not sensuously apprehended, but only known intellectually, by revelation or inspiration. Alexander says: There are two stages in this Art, that which you see with the eye, and that which you apprehend with the mind. The hidden Stone may be called the gift of God, and if it does not mingle with our Stone, the work of Alchemy is marred. Now, the same hidden Stone is the heart and tincture of gold sought by the Sages. In this way, Alchemy is supernatural and Divine, and in his Stone consists the whole difficulty of the Art. We have need of much faith in this matter, just as much as we have need of it in regard to God’s miraculous dealings in Scripture. It is God alone that perfects our Stone, and Nature has no hand in it. It is on account of this fact that the ancient Sages were able to prophecy: the influence of the supernatural Stine exalted them above the ordinary level of human nature. The prophecies which they uttered were frequently of a special; and most important character. Though heathens, they knew that there would come for this world a day of judgment and consummation; and of the resurrection of the dead, when every soul shall be reunited to its body, not to be severed from it thenceforward forever. Then they said that every glorified body would be incorruptible, and perfectly penetrated in all its parts by the spirit, because the nature of the body would then resemble that of the spirit. Bonellus, in the Turba says: All things live and die at the beck of God, and there is a nature which on becoming moist, and being mingled with moisture for some nights, resembles a dead thing; thereafter it needs fire, till the spirit of that body is extracted, and the body becomes dust. Then God restores to it its soul and spirit. Its weakness is removed, and it is raised incorruptible and glorious. Our substance conceives by itself, and is impregnated by itself and brings forth itself --- and this, the conception of a virgin, is possible only by Divine grace. Moreover, the birth leaves our substance still a virgin, which, again, is a miraculous event. Hence we cannot but call the conception, birth, and nutrition of our Stone supernatural and divine. Alphidius tells us that our Stone is cast out into the streets, raised aloft to the clouds, dwells in the air, is nourished in the river, sleeps upon the summits of mountains; its mother is a virgin, its father knows no woman. These ancient Sages also knew that God must become man, because on the last day of our Magistery that which generates, and that which is generated, become absolutely one; then the old man and the child, the father and the son, are indistinguishably united. Hence they concluded that the Creator must also become one with the creature; moreover, they knew that man was, alone of all created beings, made in the image of God. Plato wrote the Gospel, which many years later was rewritten and completed by St John, even as St Augustine recites in the seventh book (IX, 13) of his Confessions. Our Magistery, says Morienus, is the Mystery of Mysteries of the most High God, which He committed to His saints in Paradise.
It is to be noted that natural operations which lie out of the course of ordinary natural development, have in them a Divine or supernatural element. And the power which is in Nature is also derived from God. Our Magistery depends quite as much on Divine influences as upon the operations of Nature, and the succour of the artist who assists Nature. The change is brought about by the power of God, which operates through the knowledge of the artist. How difficult, how mysterious, how wonderful, how arduous must it then be for the artist to attain to so lofty a summit of spiritual insight! We may well call this Magistery a divine and glorious mystery, which transcends not only Nature, but the godlike reason of man; for even man cannot apprehend the mystery, except by direct inspiration or circumstantial oral teaching, combined with minute ocular demonstration.
Here Follows The Second Distinction In Which Shall Be Shewn How This Art Was Invented; To Whom It Was Given, From Whom It Was Withheld, And Why The Sages Keep It Such A Close Secret.
None of the ancients would have been able to bring to light the hidden mysteries of this Art, had not God Himself, the Bestower of all good and perfect gifts, first revealed is to His Saints that feared His Holy Name. Rhasis, in his Book of Three Worlds, calls it the gift of God, Aristotle says that it was first known to Adam. Others affirm that it was revealed to Enoch in a vision; and these persons identify Enoch with Hermogenes, or Hermes Trismegistus. Aristotle, in his Epistle to Alexander, calls the origin of the Art one of the greatest and most sacred mysteries; and therefore he entreats that prince not to ask for more information than he gives him in the said treatise. Some persons indeed maintain that this treatise is a rank forgery, and that it was certainly not composed by Aristotle; and this opinion they base on internal evidence, more especially on the difference in style which may be observed in the book when compared with the other writings of the illustrious Stagirite. But the difference of style is sufficiently accounted for by the exceptional nature of the subject matter: and this epistle has always been attributed to Aristotle. Testimony is borne to the same fact also by John Mesne, and in Haly’s book on the Mystery of Mysteries. Now because this Art was revealed by God to His obedient servants, it is the duty of all Sages not to reveal it to any unworthy person. It is true that whoever understands a science, or art, knows how to teach it; nor would jealousy or envy become a wise man: but the Sages have expressed their knowledge in mysterious terms in order that it might be made known to no person except such as were chosen by God Himself. But though the phraseology of the Sages be obscure, it must not therefore be supposed that their books contain a single deliberate falsehood. There are many passages in the writings of Morienus, Geber, and others, where this charge is indignantly rebutted. Those for whom the knowledge of Alchemy is intended, will be able, in course of time and study, to understand even the most obscure of Alchemistic treatises: for they will be in a position to look at them from the right point of view. It is only the wise and God-fearing whom we invite to this banquet: let those who are not bidden refrain from attempting to cross our threshold. The books of the Sages are only for the Sons of Knowledge. The Sages, says Hermes, are not jealous of the obedient, gentle, and lowly student: it is the profane, the vicious, and the ignorant to whom they desire to give a wide berth. Therefore, I conjure you, my friends, not to make known this science to any foolish, ignorant, or unworthy person. God-fearing Sages, adds Alphidius, have never carried their jealousy so far as to refuse to unveil this mystery to men of their own way of thinking. But they have carefully concealed it from the multitude, lest there be an end of all sowing, planting, reaping, and of agriculture and work generally. These are very good and humane reasons, then, why this Art should not be revealed to everybody. Moreover, it is delivered to us in obscure terms, in order that the student may be compelled to work hard in its pursuit. We do not prize that which costs us nothing; it is our highest delight to reap some great benefit as the reward of our labour. Therefore, it would not be good for you if this knowledge were to come to you after reading one book, or after spending a few days in its investigation. But if you are worthy, if you possess energy and the spirit of perseverance, if you are ready to study diligently by day and by night, if you place yourself under the guidance of God, you will find the coveted knowledge in God’s own good time. Do not be satisfied with alteration of metals, like our modern sophists, but aim at transmutation; and do not suffer them to lead you aside with their sophistical jargon and their absurd and baseless pretensions. Knowledge is one, as truth is one; and let me add that our knowledge and our truth are both very simple and straightforward. If you once depart from the unity and truth of Nature, you are involved in the bewildering mazes of confusion and error.
Observe here The Operation And Experience Of Alchemy, How It Calls For Constant Manual Operations, And The Teaching Of Experience, For The Artist To Purify The Elements, And To Combine Them When Purified, Etc.
In our glorious Art nothing is more necessary than constant reference to the facts of Nature, which can be ascertained only by actual experiment. The dross which is purged off by means of the natural operation must be removed by the artist, if his work is to prosper. The philosopher Socrates directs us to seek the cold of the Moon that we may find the heat of the Sun, and to exercise the hands so that the laborious nature of the work may be lightened. Hence it is all but impossible, as we may learn from Geber in his Sum of Perfection, for a blind man, or one whose sense of touch is defective, to be successful in or Magistery. The experience of sight is essential, more especially at the end of the decoction; when all superfluous matter has been removed, the artist will behold an awful and amazing splendour, the occultation of Sol in Luna, the marriage of East and West, the union of heaven and earth, and the conjunction, as the ancients tell us, of the spiritual with the corporeal. In that process of cooling, as we may learn from the Turba Philosophorum, Hermes, and Avicenna, the manifest is concealed, while that which was concealed is made manifest. The first operation, which is done by hand, is the first stage of the work, which consists in Sublimation and Purification. The second operation, in which the artist has nothing to do but look on, is the second stage of the work. Here the purified and sublimed substance is fixed and becomes solid. This operation should bring about the perfection of our substance. No one can exercise our Magistery in the absence of the practical teaching of experience, without which the most diligent poring over books would be useless. The words of the Sages may mean anything or nothing to one who is not acquainted with the facts which they describe. If the son of knowledge will persevere in the practical study of our Art, it will in due time burst upon his enchanted vision. The study of books cannot be dispensed with, but the study of books alone is not sufficient. There must be a profound natural faculty for interpreting the significance of those symbols and analogies of the philosophers, which in one place have one meaning and in another a different. For, as Morienus tells us, all books on Alchemy are figuratively written. By theory and practice working together, you will be led to the fruition of the most precious Arcanum, which is the greatest and most wonderful treasure of this world. If you think that you have understood the directions of the Sages, put your impression to a practical test; if you were mistaken, Nature will take good care to correct your error, and if you will follow her guidance and take her suggestions, she may, after several experiments, put you in the right path. Thus you must go on, letting theory suggest practice, until at length all difficulties are resolved, and your way lies plain before you. Meditation, says Rhasis, is of no value without experience, but it is possible for you to gain your object by experience without meditation. The practical method will a once enable you to detect any false or sophistical statement, and to avoid being infected with the folly of our modern Alchemists. You will never, for instance, fall into so gross a mistake as to suppose that our Art can change common flints into diamonds or other precious stones. Those who put forward such a statement do not seem to understand that there is here wanting that identity of first substance which undoubtedly exists in the case of base and precious metals. The products of such an art (falsely so called) are not diamonds or precious stones, but pieces of glass, the colouring matter of which is supplied from without, and not --- as it ought to be --- from within. Moreover, even if we really knew the precise nature of the first substance of precious stones, we could hardly produce them, because they are not fusible like metals. Against all such errors the practical Alchemist will be on his guard. It is impossible for us to imitate Nature in the production of substances of which we have only the proximate matte, and are in ignorance of the mode of their acting, as, for example, in marcasite, tutia, and antimony, of which the matter is quicksilver and sulphur; much less then can we imitate her in the manufacture of precious stones when we are ignorant in both points.
Third Distinction, Shewing That This Art Is More Certain Than Other Sciences, And That It Is Noble, Brief, And Very Easy.
The remarkable agreement of all Sages demonstrated that this Art is more certain than any other. There is amongst them a wonderful speculative and practical harmony, and their contradictions are only verbal and superficial. The whole Magistery of our Art can be learned in a single hour of one who knows --- which is the case with no other science or art. Yet one who can perform the practical operations of Alchemy is not yet an Alchemists, just as not everyone who speaks grammatically is a grammarian. Such persons still lack that knowledge of the causes of things which exalts the mind of man, and raises it to God. Hermes, in the beginning of his Book of Mysteries, calls Alchemy a most true and certain Art, shewing that what is above is like that which is beneath, and that which is beneath is like that which is above, etc., etc. Again, our Art is more noble and precious than any other science, Art, or system, with the single exception of the glorious doctrine of Redemption through our Saviour Jesus Christ. It must be studied, like other Arts, for gain, but for its own sake; because itself has power to bestow gold and silver, and knowledge more precious than either gold or silver. It may also be called noble, because there is in it a Divine and supernatural element It is the key of all good things, the Art of Arts, the science of sciences. There are, according to Aristotle, four noble sciences: Astrology, Physics, Magic, and Alchemy --- but Alchemy bears the palm from them all. Moreover, it is a science which leads to still more glorious knowledge; nor can there be found a branch of human wisdom, either speculative or practical, to equal it. We naturally desire, says Aristotle (de Animal. X), to know a little of a noble and profound science, rather than to understand thoroughly some commonplace branch of knowledge. Our Art frees not only the body, but also the soul from the snares of servitude and bondage; it ennobles the rich, and comfort and relieves the poor. Indeed, it may be said to supply every human want, and to provide a remedy for every form of suffering.
It has been set forth by the Sages in the most perplexing and misleading manner, in order to baffle foolish and idly curious persons, who look rather at the sound than at the meaning of what is said. Yet, in spite of foolish and ignorant people, the Art is one, and it is true. Were it stripped of all figures and parables, it would be possible to compress it into the space of eight or twelve lines.
This Art is noble, brief, and easy. It requires one thing, which everybody knows. It is in many things, yet it is one thing. It is found everywhere, yet it is most precious. You must fix it and tame it in the fire; you must make it rise, and again descend. When conjunction has taken place, straightway it is fixed. Then it gives riches to the poor and rest to the weary. The operation is good, if it becomes first dry and then liquid, and what Rebis (Twothing) is, you will find in the practical part of this work.
Fourth Distinction, Shewing The Error Into Which Many Fall Towards The End Of The Work, Namely, In The Composition Of Elements; What Is The Beginning Of The Work And What Is Its End; And How This Art Is Not For All Wise People.
It is difficult to know and investigate natural things, and their causes; but the knowledge of supernatural things is proportionately still more difficult. Hence we must no be surprised that the mysteries of our Art are discovered only by few enquirers. It is not good fortune, but only the grace of God, joined to reason, that will ensure success.
Many students of our Art who have operated naturally only, have accomplished the first part of our Magistery; but as the second part contains a supernatural element, being ignorant and incredulous, they were not able to perform it, and thus that which they had already done was neither permanent nor valuable. For there can be no permanence in the first part unless it be joined to the second in the same hour, for the second is the key of the whole work. I knew a man says Gregory, who began the work in the right way, and achieved the White Tincture; but when there was some delay about the appearance of the Red Colour, he gave up in despair, etc. This man knew the simple elements of our Art, their purification, commixtion, and the different signs which were to appear; he was ignorant only of the day and hour in which the conjunction of the simple elements and the completion of the work might be expected; and because he did not know what to do at the right time, the whole Magistery vanished from his sight. For the White Stone was net yet fixed, and, being exposed to too much heat, it evaporated. The permanent fixation of the Stone is the Divine, or supernatural department in our Art, which is performed by the by the composition of these simple elements together, when the fixed Stone retains the volatile, and they remain together eternally, wherein is the whole power of Alchemy, which is neither accomplished by Art or Nature only, but by God, the glorious. I do you to wit, says Lucas in The Crowd, that all things created are composed of four elements, and return into them; in these they are generated and corrupted, according to the will of God. It is through he shortcomings of their creation, as Alphidius testifies, that all things are subject to decay. Our Stone must have he elements so cunningly united in its composition that they can never thenceforth be separated. You need special pains towards the end of our Magistery. The foetus grows without any care, day by day and hour by hour, for nine months in the mother’s womb; but when its growth is completed, it needs an expulsive effort of the uterus, or else it must die; and something of the same kind happens with regard to our Stone, which, happens, though it is produced perfect in itself, is yet wanting in tincture fixity, and marital conjunction. When the hatching of chickens is accomplished, the little creatures often want some aid to assist them in getting out of the egg, and if they cannot obtain that aid they are choked and die. We must knows, says Rhasis, the hidden nature of the Stone and of its dissolution; for if you have not an accurate knowledge of these particulars you had better stay your hand at once. Let us not for a moment suppose that it will be profitable for us to set about this Magistery if we do not understand the composition of the elements. This is the part of our work which is supernatural, since it unites earthly to heavenly things, and therefore it is called Divine, celestial, glorious, wonderful, most beautiful, most difficult. It is an Art which we can know by Divine inspiration. The ancient Sages described the entire first part of the work as the beginning of the work, and the beginning of the work was with them the nativity and germination of the Stone, which takes place on the day when the coction and digestion of the substance is complete, and is sublimation perfect. In other words, to them the beginning of the work was the completion of the digestive process, and the digested and perfected substance itself. The end and complement of the work is the retaining of the Stone after its digestion, Now, Aristotle tells us that a slight error in the beginning may be a great one in the end; one mistake breeds a whole swarm of disastrous consequences. Hence we must be very careful about the first steps we take in the development of our substance, or we may irreparably mar our work at the very outset, the error becoming more and more apparent as the operation proceeds. The perfection of the end must be already germinally contained in the beginning. Whiteness is the beginning of our Magistery, its perfection and end is Redness; and the Red Tincture is germinally contained in the white. The spirit cannot enter the body until it is purified; but when purification has taken place, we may expect the permanent conjunction of the corporeal and the spiritual principles. So should the state of whiteness be anxiously looked for, because it is the beginning and foundation of this work.
Here Follows The Fifth Distinction, Shewing That This Stone Is Like All things In The World, And That It Goes By Different Names. How Far Alchemy Has Anything In Common With Other Sciences.
Our Stone, from its all-comprehensive nature, may be compared to all things in the world. In its origin and sublimation, and in the conjunction of its elements, there are analogies to things heavenly, earthly, and infernal, to the corporeal and the incorporeal, to things corruptible and incorruptible, visible and invisible, to spirit, soul and body, and their union and separation, to the creation of the world, its elements, and their qualities, to all animals, vegetables, and minerals, to generation and corruption, to life and death, to virtues and vices, to unity and multitude, to actuality and potentiality, to conception and birth, to male and female, to boy and old man, to the vigorous and the weak, to the victor and the vanquished, to peace and war, to white and red, and all colours, to the beauty of Paradise, to the terrors of the infernal abyss.
To the initiated it is clear that Moses, Daniel, Solomon, several of the prophets, and the evangelist St John, possessed the knowledge of this Art, it having been revealed to them by God Himself. These holy men did no affect the Art for the sake of the acquisition of gold and silver, but on account of its beauty and the insight which it affords into the things of the spiritual world. As our Art is touched upon in all other sciences, so the prophets referred to it for the purpose of illustrating Divine truth. Nor is this wonderful, seeing that our Art speaks of all things, both visible and invisible, by analogy. This remark refers not only to philosophy, physics, medicine, astrology, geomancy, etc., but is of universal application.
It may be asserted as a general truth that the verities and realities of things come first, while their similitudes and allegories are secondary and derivative. The ancient Sages, before Aristotle, was therefore greatly mistaken in supposing that any art or science could be taught or delivered to others by means of allegories and metaphorical analogies. Before an Art is known, it should be taught --- according to Aristotle, Averroes, and Avicenna --- by a plain and straightforward method; when it is once known, the allegorical method may be employed with advantage.
Owing to the custom of the Sages that, namely, of giving an allegorical expression to their meaning, and carefully eschewing the plain scientific method, we have an infinite variety of names used to describe our precious Stone, every one of which may be said, in a tropical manner, to represent a certain aspect of the truth of our Art. So Rhasis in the Light of Lights warns us that his sayings are to be typically understood. The same principle may open up to us an understanding of the paradoxical assertion of Pythagoras --- in The Crowd --- that our Stone is found everywhere and yet not found; it is a stone and not a stone, worthless and precious, carefully hidden and yet familiarly known to all, with one name and yet many names. The great variety of its names is referred by Alphidius to the fact that in it there are analogies to all kinds of animals and stones, to all colours and odours, and all the works of men, either manual or mental. Melvescindus adds, that if we call it spiritual we are right; if we describe it as corporal, we are not mistaken; if we style it heavenly, we do not lie; if we call it earthly we say the truth. Lilium avers that our Stone has as many names as there are things, or names of things. Alphidius says: In our Magistery there is a great abundance of parables, names, and similitudes for the purpose of hiding the tr