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.

Thus the noble Life in the Tincture stands in great Danger, and has hourly to expect the [Corruption, or Destruction, Breaking, or] Dissolution; for...

Continuing: "Philosophers say there is no true solution of the body without a proceeding coagulation of the spirit, for they are interchangeably...

But now that Tincture qualifies [or mixes] with the whole Body, but also with the Soul; for if it [the Tincture] be faithful, then it reaches the Virg...

But if it be kindled in the element water, and springeth [becometh active] therein, it causes debility and sickness in the flesh, and finally death. O...

"When you see it black set your glass as before to coagulate and when it begins to be of a grayish color and whitish, set it in a third time to...

Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Feeling; for the fierce Sharpness of the Tincture of the first Principle, proves in its own Essences [in or] o...

For when the unctuosness or fat in the sweet water dieth, then it is turned into an anguishing sweat, in which the astringent and the bitter qualify, ...

Then next the bitter spirit, which existeth in the fire-flash, is also in the matter or mass, and that cannot endure to be captivated or imprisoned...

The first Tincture of the first Principle is properly the P Habitation in the Fire-flash, which is the Source, [Life, or active Property,] in the...

Seeing now we have spoken of the Tincture, as of the House of the Soul, so we will speak also of the Soul, what it is, and how it can be propagated,...

And the bitter quality is the separation and forming, and the heat is the spirit, or the kindling of the life, whereby the spirit existeth in the body...

Here now we find, that they heard the Voice of God in the Garden; for the Element, which is before God, wherewith Man qualifies [or mixes,] that did...

And in the Tincture [there] stands the continual kindling Fire, which continually draws the Virtue or Oleum [the Oil] out of the Water; from whence co...

Then come the other three Elements out of their Regions, and fill themselves also by Force Or Dominion. therein, each of them would taste of the Virgi...

The deep Gate of Life.

"Thou art of fire; return to thy root!" In the body there are seventy-and-two diseases; Disease comes to rend the body asunder, The four elements are...

And so Man's Life is every where begirt with Enemies, and the poor Soul is always in a close Prison fettered with many Chains, and is continually in F...

IV. The fourth generating is the fire, which existeth from the mobility or rubbing in the astringent spirit, and that is now a sharp burning, and the...

The noble Tincture is the Dwelling-house of the Spirit, and has three Forms; one is eternal, and incorruptible; the other, is mutable [or...

This, therefore, it is not fit to suspect of the Gods [ viz. that they can be defiled by vapours]; but it is much more requisite to think that things...