Medicina practica, or, Practical physick shewing the method of curing the most usual diseases happening to humane bodies ... : to which is added, the philosophick works of Hermes Trismegistus, Kalid Persicus, Geber Arabs, Artesius Longævus, Nicholas Flammel, Roger Bachon and George Ripley : all translated out of the best Latin editions into English ... : together with a singular comment upon the first book of Hermes, the most ancient of philosophers : the whole compleated in three books / by William Salmon ...

CHAP. I. The Preface Explicating, in part, the Prima Materia.

I. HERMES: Even Hermes himself saith, I have not in a very long Age, ceased to try Experiments, nor have I spared any Labour of mind: But I obtained the knowledge of this Art, by the Inspiration of the Living God only, who esteeming. me his Servant worthy, did reveal and open the Secret to me.

Salmon. There are three things which are certainly most necessary to the at∣tainment of this knowledge. I. An Unwearied Study. 2. A Continued Experience. 3. And the Divine Blessing going along with all. With∣out these, it is not probable any Man can attain the knowledge of this Secret.

There must be a diligent Study, and a serious Medi∣tation in the Soul, concern∣ing this thing: Then these things thus meditated on, must, by experience, be brought to ocular demon∣stration; nor, if you miss many times, must you be weary with trying. Lastly, you must all along attend the Blessing of God for his assistance: 'Tis that Eternal Spirit of God which goes through, and pierces all things, which generates, and preserves that which is ge∣nerated: His Spirit of heat decocts, and coagulates that which is thin, rarifies that which is too thick, warms the cold; and raises up to life that which has been dead and buried.

II. Hermes. Who has gi∣ven to, or bestowed upon rati∣onal Creatures, the power and faculties of truly judging and determining, not forsaking any, so as to give them an occasion to cease searching after the Truth.

Salmon. 'Tis true, that Adam before the Fall was adorned with the fulness of light and knowledge above all other Creatures, shining like Sol among the Stars; but after his Fall, that prime perfection was much eclip∣sed, and he was drove out of the Garden, into a Wil∣derness among the Beasts which perish; yet not with∣out a promise of Restaurati∣on, and remission of his Transgression, by one Eter∣nal Sacrifice, through the diffluence and power of whose Spirit, Man is put in∣to a possibility of attaining a measure of the true and perfect knowledge and un∣derstanding even in this life.

III. Hermes. For my part, I had never discovered any thing of this matter, nor re∣vealed it to any one, had not the fear of the Judgments of God, or the hazard of the Damnation of my Soul for such a Concealment prevailed with me. It is a debt I am willing to pay to the Just; as the Fa∣ther of the Just has liberally bestowed. it upon me.

Salmon. That is, reveal∣ed them so as that the Sons of Art might understand them, not to the Profane and Unworthy, and Scof∣fers: For the Oracle of Truth himself has long since told us, It is not fit to give the Childrens Bread to Dogs; though they may eat of the Crumbs which fall from the Masters Table. Some Men the Scriptures of Truth have compared to Dogs, yea, Greedy Dogs, Wolves, Foxes, &c. These can ne∣ver come to sit at the Ta∣ble, and feed of the Divine repast; 'Tis a Transgressi∣on against the Law of Na∣ture, which is the Law of God, which deserves the Divine Vengeance for a pu∣nishment: And such indeed is the revealing of forbidden Secrets to such to whom they do not belong. And saith Raimand Lully, Thou shalt reserve and keep that Se∣cret, which is proper only to God to reveal, and thou dost justly conceal those things, whose revelation belongs to his Honour; otherwise thou shalt be condemned in the Great day, as a Traytor to the Majesty of God, nor shall thy Treason be forgiven thee.

IV. Hermes. Now un∣derstand, O ye Children of Wisdom, that the knowledge of the four Elements of the Ancient Philosophers, was not Corporally, nor Imprudently sought into: Which are through patience to be attained, accord∣ing to their kind, which through their own operation are hidden or obscured. You can do no∣thing, except the matter be compounded, because it cannot be perfected, unless first the various Colours are throughly accomplished.

Salmon. Hermes now be∣gins to give a description of the Great Work, which he calls the knowledge of the Elements, but not of those Elements which are foolish∣ly discoursed of in the Schools of the Peripateticks: They speak of an Element to be Corpus Simplex, but our Hermes saith, They are not to be understood Corpora∣liter. Ergò 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 i. e. Spiritualiter & Sapienter, that is, Spiri∣tually

and Wisely. Thus the Principles of Art are said to be four Elements, Earth, Water, Air, Fire, as Hermes indigitates, but what these are in a Spiritual sense, the Peripatetick knows not, which the same Hermes in∣terprets in another place, the Soul, Spirit, and Body; and which Paracelsus calls Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. Others make but two, as the Agent and Patient; Mascu∣line and Feminine; Sulphur and Mercury: Others but one only, viz. The Aqua Philosophica: There are ma∣ny other Names by which this Matter is called, but the Subject, or Prima mate∣ria, is one only: because it is, as it were, the Cardinal hinge upon which all the rest turn, which the Philo∣sophers explicate to be their Mercury, which is the be∣ginning, the middle, and the end of the Work, and without which, whoever labours, labours in vain; and yet it will do nothing without it be compounded, because it cannot be perfe∣cted without its colours are throughly accomplished: The Body and the Soul; or the Salt and the Sulphur, cannot be united in their most minute parts, without the help of the Spirit which is Mercury. Luna and Sol cannot procreate without the help of Mercury, which extracts the Semen from both the Bodies, and in the cen∣ter of the Earth, as its pro∣per Vessel, digests and per∣fects it. Therefore Mercury does nothing of its self, ex∣cept something be added to it by which it may be mor∣tified.

V. Harmes. Know then, that the Division which was made upon the water by the Ancient Philosophers, is that which separates it, or converts it into four other substances; one into two, and three to one; the third part of which is color, or has tincture, to wit, the coagulating humour or moi∣sture, but the second and third Waters are the Weights of the Wise.

Salmon. This Water to be divided, is the same with the four Elements before spoken of, viz. The Aqua

Philosophica: This must be divided into four parts, viz. The one part into two; ad∣ding three parts to one; from whence arises seven parts: He divides the diffe∣rences of the Colors into two threes, that is, into three Red Spirits, and three White, which three Spirits have their rise from the one Aqua Philosophica, and are resolved into the same a∣gain.

VI. Hermes. Take of the humidity or moisture, an ounce and half: of the Southern Redness, viz. Anima Solis, a fourth part, i. e. half an ounce; of the Citrine Seyre in like manner half an ounce: of Au∣ripigment half an ounce, which are eight; that is three ounces: Now understand that the Vine of the Wise Men, or Tree of the Philosophers is extracted or drawn forth in three, but the Wine thereof is not perfected till at length thirty be com∣pleated.

Salmon. He Essays to explicate the proportions of the Philosophick Ingredi∣ents, under various Names; for that which he calls the Humidity, the Southern Red∣ness, Anima solis, Seyre Ci∣trinum, Auripigment, the Vine of the Philosophers, and their Wine, have no other signifi∣cation, but that the Aqua Mercurii should be seven times distilled, which after the eighth Distillation, the Compositum, by the force of the fire, is converted into Ashes, or a most subtil pou∣der, which by reason of its purity and perfection resists the fire: neither wonder that eight parts and three ounces are equivalent, for by the former Section, the one part is divided into two, to each of them, there is added three parts, which are the true and Philoso∣phick Proportions, called by Hermes, the Weights of the Wise.

VII. Hermes. Understand then the operation. The Deco∣ction doth diminish the matter, but the Tincture does augment it: Because Luna in 15 days is diminished [in the Heaven] and in the third operation [viz. after the Conjunction with Sol] it is augmented. This is

then the beginning and the end.

Salmon. Here Hermes e∣ludicates the Philosophick Work by a most familiar Example of the Phases of Luna; and so it is, the Mi∣neral Process in this Philo∣sophick Work, exactly an∣swering to that Parallel in Heaven. Some divide the Operation of the Stone into two parts, viz. the former and the latter. The former Hermes explicates by the no∣tion of Decoction, which does diminish the matter, dis∣solves it, as it were destroys it; but being thus Dissolv∣ed and Corrupted, it is through Regeneration (by the Medium of perfection) restored again. This done, then follows the latter part of the Operation, by means of which the Virtue and Power of the Stone is made wonderful, brought to its highest perfection, and mul∣tiplied (as it were) in infini∣tum. In these few words of Hermes, are comprehended the whole Work, and in them it is plainly laid open from the beginning to the end. In a word, it is like the Husbandman Sowing his Seed in the Ground, which must first Die, be Corrup∣ted and Putrefied, before it can be possest of a new Life, by which it must arise and yeild its Hundred Fold In∣crease: the first Life, the first Birth, the first Body, must Die, and give place to the second.