A choice collection of rare secrets and experiments in philosophy as also rare and unheard-of medicines, menstruums and alkahests : with the true secret of volatilizing the fixt salt of tartar / collected and experimented by the honourable and truly learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Kt., Chancellour to Her Majesty the Queen-Mother ; hitherto kept secret since his decease, but now published for the good and benefit of the publick by George Hartman.

Flamel, Artefius, Pontanus, Zacaire, &c. Their Arcanum.

THis Stone is that about which the above∣named Authors employed themselves: It is composed of the Mineral Gluten, made of ☿ and {antimony} Mineral, by the addition of the Solary Ferment thus: Distil the Volatile Crystals or Butter from ☿ {subli}mate and {antimony}, equal parts: Or distill, or dissolve common ☿ in A. F, Precipitate with Salt-water, and you shall have a very white Calx, which dry, and joyn it with as much of Calx of ♃, and distill the Volatile Crystals thereof. These Crystals are the Magnet, by means of which the Universal form, or Spirit of the World is attracted; which specifieth and determineth it self in this matter, by resolution in the Air in ♈, ♉, & ♊. Put this Liquor in a Cucurbite, and digest for thirty days with a very gentle heat with a Lamp, to the end, that there may be a Natural distillation made of the attracted Spirit, which will begin to

come over invisibly the first or second day, with the Idea of that which it draws, to wit, the {antimony}, and of ☿, or with a universal Mineral form, tending to Metallick. This Liquor will continue coming over even unto the end of fifty days; let not the heat exceed that of ones hand. This Aethereal {water} is the {water} of Paradise, or the Mineral astrum of Flamel's two Dragons, the one is Volatile (which is ☿) and the other Rampant, which is the {antimony}, which do not suffer to be touched nor at∣tacked, until their Venemous scum (that is to say, the Butter) have produced the Spi∣rit of the Mercurial-wind, and the scum of the Red Sea. Note, that within fifteen days this Sea or Butter cometh to be very red, with a gentle heat of a Lamp {fire} in Ashes; and this is Flamel's Red Sea. This Aethereal {water} penetrates all Metalline Bodies, (being Lu∣minated and made red-hot) and tingeth them into ☽. Two drops of this {water} being dissol∣ved in ℥iv. of Spirit of Wine, maketh a Vir∣ginal Milk, whereof the Dose is a spoonful: It is a very gentle Emetick, because of its crudity, or rather Mercurial Substance, where∣of the vertue Operates upwards, because it is moist and Airy. It Cures the Epilepsie by the Character, which is imprinted into it, by the word Fiat, and all astral Diseases, as far as humane disposition permits. This is the

Coelestial {water} which doth not wet ones hands after its preparation; 'tis the ☿ of ☿, the {water} or Centre of the Heart of ☿, and the true extent of {antimony}, but it requires more Work. Take this {water} (you must have a pretty great quantity of it, and therefore you must have ten, fifteen, or twenty pound of Volatile Crystals) and put it in a Cucurbite, and with a very gentle heat of a Lamp distill off all the waterish moistness, which by careles∣ness it might have contracted from the Air: There will remain in the bottom a Gum, a Syrup, a viscous {water}, a Radical Mineral moi∣sture, which is the Eagles gluten above-men∣tioned, which did fly the space of fifty days continually; by means of this gentle heat, the Gluten flies no more, but is the flying Crapant and Zacair's Mercurial {water}, which is congealed by cold, and liquified by heat. The Authors before mentioned have digested this Gluten per se in a Matrass Hermetically Sealed, without the addition of a Solary Fer∣ment; but afterwards they have been forced to ferment the Powder which they made of it. For to shorten the Work, take seven parts, or nine or ten, or more of this Glu∣ten, unto which by heat joyn one part of ☉ in leaf, or Sulphur of ☉ prepared by the Salt Enixe (which is best) and digest in an A∣thanor, or in Flamel's Furnace (which is

very easie) until all the Matter have passed through all the due colours, and come to be of a purple Citrine colour; then have you the Metalline Salt, the most high Tincture, a Treacle made of Venom, a most Excellent Medicine made of the greatest Poison. This Medicine is multiplyed in quantity by new addition of the afore-mentioned Gluten; in quality, by dissolving in humido into a Li∣quor, and purifying by digestion, and then by fixation; Experience will teach other things far better. This Method, although it differs much from that of the greatest Phi∣losophers, as Lully, Trevesan, Cosmopolite, &c. (and being but particular in compari∣son of that high Generalissima) nevertheless it seems to be Universal in regard of Metals and Minerals. Note, that you may also ex∣tract a white and red. Oyl of that which re∣mains, as was said before, and make a new aurifique stone thereof, which those Authors have not understood, or if they have under∣stood it, they have not spoken of it. Note also, that this Mineral {water} of Paradise, is the Philosophers live ☉, and the ☿ of the Wise, but not the Generalissima: And this {water} will serve against all Maladies, for it drives them out, according to the intention and inclina∣tion of Nature.