(99) then the Water becomes an anguishing Sweat, which stands between Death and Life, and so the Fire of the Heat cannot kindle itself: For the Unctuosity or Fatness is captivated in the cold Fire, and so the whole Body remains a dark Valley, which stands in an anguishing Birth or Geniture, and cannot comprehend or reach the Life. For the Life which stands in the Light cannot elevate itself in the hard, bitter, and astringent Body; for it is captivated in the cold Fire, but not quite dead. And

(117) For when it is put into warm Liquor, then the Life in the Thing becomes Rising, and would fain raise itself, and be kindled in the Light, but it cannot because of the Wrath, which is opposite to it in the astral Birth or Geniture.

(9) Eximenus saith:—God hath created all things by his word, having said unto them: Be, and they were made, with the four other elements, earth, water, air, and fire, which He coagulated, and things contrary were commingled, for we see that fire is hostile to water, water hostile to fire, and both are hostile to earth and air. Yet God hath united them peacefully, so that they love one another. Out of these four elements, therefore, are all things created—heaven and the throne thereof; the angels; the sun, moon, and stars; earth and sea, with all things that are in the sea, which indeed are various, and not alike, for their natures have been made diverse by God, and also the creations. But the diversity is more than I have stated; each of these natures is of diverse nature, and by a legion of diversities is the nature of each diverse. Now this diversity subsists in all creatures, because they were created out of diverse elements. Had they been created out of one element, they would have been agreeing natures. But diverse elements being here mingled, they lose their own natures, because the dry being mixed with the humid and the cold combined with the hot, become neither cold nor hot; so also the humid being mixed with the dry becomes neither dry nor humid. But when the four elements are commingled, they agree, and thence proceed creatures which never attain to perfection, except they be left by night to putrefy and become visibly corrupt. God further completed his creation by means of increase, food, life, and government. Sons of the Doctrine, not without purpose have I described to you the disposition of these four elements, for in them is a secret arcanum; two of them are perceptible to the sense of touch and vision, and of these the operation and virtue are well known. These are earth and water. But there are two other elements which are neither visible nor tangible, which yield naught, whereof the place is never seen, nor are their operations and force known, save in the former elements, namely, earth and water; now when the four elements are not commingled, no desire of men is accomplished. But being mixed, departing from their own natures, they become another thing. Over these let us meditate very carefully.

And the Turba:—Master, if you speak, we will give heed to your words.

Then he:—I have now discoursed, and that well. I will speak only useful words which ye will follow as spoken. Know, all present, that no true tincture is made except from our copper.* Do not therefore, exhaust your brains and your money, lest ye fill your hearts with sorrow. I will give you a fundamental axiom, that unless you turn the aforesaid copper into white, and make visible coins* and then afterwards again turn it into redness,t until a Tincture results, verily, ye accomplish nothing. Burn therefore the copper, break it up, deprive it of its blackness by cooking, imbuing, and washing, until the same becomes white. Then rule it.

(91) III. Thirdly, the bitter Quality, which exists in the Kindling of the Water in the Fire-flash, is melted away, for that is a Rager, Raver, Tyrant, and Destroyer. Also no Silver nor Gold can subsist, if that be not killed or mortified, for it makes all dirty and brittle, and presents or shows forth itself in several Colours; for it rides through all Spirits, glimming the Colours of all Spirits.

(56) Constans saith: What have you to do with the treatises of the envious, for it is necessary that this work should deal with four things? They answer: Demonstrate, therefore, what are those four? And he: Earth, water, air, and fire. Ye have then those four elements without which nothing is ever generated, nor is anything absolved in the Art. Mix, therefore, the dry with the humid, which are earth and water, and cook in the fire and in the air, whence the spirit and the soul are dessicated.* And know ye that the tenuous tingeing agent takes its power out of the tenuous part of the earth, out of the tenuous part cf the fire and of the air, while out of the tenuous part of the water, a tenuous spirit has been dessicated.t This, therefore, is the process of our work, namely, that everything may be turned into earth when the tenuous parts of these things are extracted, because a body is then composed which is a kind of atmospheric thing, and thereafter tinges the imposed body of coins.* Beware, however, O all ye investigators of this art, lest ye multiply things, for the envious have multiplied and destroyed for you! They have also described various regimens that they might deceive; they have further called it (or have likened it to) the humid with all the humid, and the dry with all the dry, by the name of every stone and metal, gall of animals of the sea, the winged things of heaven and reptiles of the earth. But do ye who would tinge observe that bodies are tinged with bodies. For I say to you what the

Philosopher said briefly and truly at the beginning of his book. In the art of gold is the quicksilver from Cambar, and in coins is the quicksilver from the Male. In nothing, however, look beyond this, since the two quicksilvers are also one.

(33) For if it be elevated too much in any Creature, and be inflamed in Heat, then Flesh and Spirit separate, and the Creature loses its Life, and must die; for it moves and kindles the Element of Fire; for in the great Heat and Bitterness no Flesh can subsist. Of the Sweet Quality.

(115) now if a learned Physician inquires of the sick Person, from what his Disease proceeds, and takes that which is the Cause of the Disease, whether it be Flesh, Water, or Herbs, and drys or burns it to Powder, according as the Matter is, and so burns away the outward Poison thereof which stands in Death's Disease, then, in that distilled Water, or burnt Powder, the astral Birth remains in its Seat, where Life and Death wrestle one with another, and are both capable of being raised up; for the dead Body is gone. And

(99) But if the Fire be too hot in the fifth and sixth Melting, then the new Life, which has generated itself in the Love in the Rising up of the Light’s Power out of the Water, is kindled again in the Fierceness in the Wrath-fire, and the mineral Oar becomes a burnt Scum and Dross, and the Chemist has Dirt instead of Gold.

(106) After the Fire-crack of the Gall, or Mars, was departed from the Light of Life, then the Power pressed out of the Heart through the Light of Life after it, even into the Head into the austere Quality, and when the Power can rise up no higher, then it is stayed or captivated by the austere Birth, and is dried up by the cold.

(93) Now when the Wrath of these four Spirits is killed, then the mineral oary Salitter stands in the Water like a tough Matter, and looks like that Spirit which is predominant in the mineral Ore; and the Light, which stands in the Fire, colours it according to its own Quality, be it Silver, or Gold. [Or tinctures.]

(27) Now the Flash in the Power of these four goes forth in the Heat, and rises up in the sweet Spring Water or Fountain; the Bitter makes it triumphing; the Astringent makes it shining, dry, and corporeal; and the Sweet makes it meek and mild; and so it receives its first Shining and Lustre in the Sweet; and here now the Flash, or the Light, subsists in the Midst or Center, as a Heart.

(80) Then next the bitter Spirit, which exists in the Fire-flash, is also in the Matter or Mass, and that cannot endure to be captivated or imprisoned in the dried exsiccated Matter, but rubs itself against the astringent Spirit in the dried Mass or Lump, so long till it kindles the Fire; and so when that is done, then the bitter Spirit is terrified, and gets its Life. Conceive this here right.

(45) Prato saith: It behoves you all, O Masters, when those bodies are being dissolved, to take care lest they be burnt up, as also to wash them with sea water, until all their salt be turned into sweetness, clarifies, tinges, becomes tincture of copper, and then goes off in flight! Because it was necessary that one should become tingeing, and that the other should be tinged, for the spirit being separated from the body and hidden in the other spirit, both become volatile.

Therefore the Wise have said that the gate of flight must not be opened for that which would flee, (or that which does not flee),* by whose flight death is occasioned, for by the conversion of the sulphureous thing into a spirit like unto itself, either becomes volatile, since they are made aeriform spirits prone to ascend in the air. But the Philosophers seeing that which was not volatile made volatile with the volatiles, iterated these to a body like to the non-volatiles, and put them into that from which they could not escape.* They iterated them to a body like unto the bodies from which they were extracted, and the same were then digested. But as for the statement of the Philosopher that the tingeing agent and that which is to be tinged are made one tincture, it refers to a spirit concealed in another humid spirit.

Know also that one of the humid spirits is cold, but the other is hot, and although the cold humid is not adapted to the warm humid, nevertheless they are made one.

Therefore, we prefer these two bodies, because by them we rule the whole work, namely, bodies by not-bodies, until incorporeals become bodies, steadfast in the fire, because they are conjoined with volatiles, which is not possible in any body, these excepted. For spirits in every wise avoid bodies, but fugitives are restrained by incorporeals. Incorporeals, therefore, similarly flee from bodies; those, consequently, which do not flee are better and more precious than all bodies. These things, therefore, being done, take those which are not volatile and join them; wash the body with the incorporeal until the incorporeal receives a non-volatile body; convert the earth into water, water into fire, fire into air, and conceal the fire in the depths of the water, but the earth in the belly of the air, mingling the hot with the humid, and the cold with the dry. Know, also, that Nature overcomes Nature, Nature rejoices in Nature, Nature contains Nature.