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. XXXIV. Kalid's Secret of Secrets, or Stone of the Phi∣losophers Explicated.

I. IF you would be so happy as to obtain the Blessing of the Philos∣phers, as God doth live for ever, so let this verity live with you. Now the Philo∣sophers say, it abides in the Shell, and contains in it self both White and Red, the one is called Masculine, the other Feminine; and they are Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral, the like of which is not found in the World besides.

II. It has power both A∣ctive and Passive in it, and has also in it a substance dead and living, Spirit and Soul, which, among the ig∣norant, the Philosophers call the most vile thing: It contains in it self the four Elements which are found in its Skirts, and may com∣monly be bought for a small price.

III. It ascends by it self, it waxes black, it descends and waxes white, increases

and decreases of it self: It is a matter which the Earth brings forth, and descends from Heaven, grows pale and red, is born, dieth, ri∣ses again, and afterwards lives for ever.

IV. By many ways it is brought to its end, but its proper decoction is upon a fire soft, mean, strong, by various degrees augmented, until you are certain it is qui∣etly fixed with the Red in the fire. This is the Philo∣sophers Stone.

V. Read, and Read a∣gain, so will all things be∣come more clear to you: But if hereby you under∣stand not the matter, you are withheld by the Chains of Ignorance; for you shall never otherwise know or learn this Art.

VI. Hermes saith, The Dragon is not killed, but by his Brother and his Sister; not by one of them alone, but by both together: Note these things: There are three Heads, yet but one Body, one Nature, and one Mi∣neral: This is sufficient for you if you have a dispositi∣on to understand this Art.

VII. The Dragon is not mortified, nor made fixed, but with Sol and Luna, and by no other: In the Moun∣tains of Bodies, in the Plains of Mercury, look for it, there this Water is created, and by concourse of these two, and is called by the Philosophers, their perma∣nent or fixed Water.

VIII. Our Sublimation is to decoct the Bodies with Golden Water, to dissolve, to liquifie, and to sublime them: Our Calcination is to purifie and digest in four ways, and not otherwise, by which many have been deceived in Sublimation.

IX. Know also that our Brass, or Latten, is the Phi∣losophers Gold, is the true Gold: But you strive to expel the Greenness, think∣ing that our Latten or Brass, is a Leprous Body, because of that Greenness, but I tell you, that that Greenness is all that is perfect therein,

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and all that is perfect, is in that Greenness only, which is in our Latten, or Brass.

X. For that Greenness, by our Magistery is in a ve∣ry little time transmuted in∣to the most fine Gold: And of this thing we have expe∣rience, which you may try by the following Directi∣ons.

XI. Take burnt, or cal∣cined Brass, and perfectly rubified: Grind it, and de∣coct it with Water, seaven times, as much every time as it is able to drink, in all the ways of Rubifying and Assating it again.

XII. Then make it to di∣scend, and its green color, will be made Red, and as clear as a Hyacinth; and so much redness will descend with it, that it will be able to tinge Argent Vive, in some measure, with the ve∣ry color of Gold; all which we have done and perfect∣ed, and is indeed a very great Work.

XIII. Yet you cannot prepare the Stone by any means, with any green and moist liquor, which is found and brought forth in our Minerals; this blessed might, power, or virtue, which ge∣nerates all things, will not yet cause a vegetation, springing, budding forth, or fruitfulness, unless there be a Green color.

XIV. Wherefore the Phi∣losophers call it their Bud, and their Water of Purifi∣cation, or Putrefaction; and they say truth herein; for with its water it is putrefi∣ed, and purified, and wash∣ed from its blackness, and made White.

XV. And afterwards it is made the higheft Red; whereby you may learn and understand, that no true Tincture is made but with our Brass, or Lat∣ten.

XVI. Decoct it there∣fore with its Soul, till the Spirit be joyned with its Body, and be made one, so shall you have your desire.

XVII. The Philosophers have spoken of this under many Names, but know certainly, that it is but one matter which does cleave or joyn it self to Argent Vi∣ve, and to Bodies, which you shall have the true signs of: Now you must know what Argent Vive will cleave, or perfectly joyn and unite it self unto.

XVIII. That the Argent Vive will cleave, joyn, or unite it self to Bodies is false: And they err who think that they understand that place in Geber of Argent Vive, where he saith, When in searching among other things, you shall not find by our Invention, any matter to be more agreeable to Nature, than Argent Vive of the Bo∣dies.

XIX. By Argent Vive in this place, is understood Argent Vive Philosophical; and it is that Argent Vive only which sticks to, and is fixed in, and with the Bo∣dies: The old Philosophers could find no other matter; nor can the Philosophers now, invent any other mat∣ter or thing, which will a∣bide with the Bodies, but this Philosophick Argent Vive only.

XX. That common Ar∣gent Vive does not stick, or cleave to the Bodies, is evi∣dent by Experience, for if common Argent Vive be joyned to the Bodies, it a∣bides in its proper nature, or flys away, not being a∣ble to transmute the Body into its own nature and sub∣stance, and therefore does not cleave unto them.

XXI. For this cause, many are deceived in work∣ing with the vulgar Quick∣silver: For our Stone, that is to say, our Argent Vive accidental, does exalt it self far above the most fine Gold, and does overcome it, and kill it, and then make it alive again.

XXII. And this Argent Vive, is the Father of all the Wonderful things of this our Magistery, and is con∣gealed, and is both Spirit

and Body: This is the Ar∣gent Vive which Geher speaks of, the consideration of which is of moment, for that it is the very matter which does make per∣fect.

XXIII. It is a chosen pure substance of Argent Vive; but out of what mat∣ter it is chiefly to be drawn, is a thing to be enquired in∣to. To which we say, That it can only be drawn out of that matter in which it is: Consider therefore my Son, and see from whence that Substance is, taking that and nothing else: By no other Principle can you obtain this Magistery.

XXIV. Nor could the Philosophers ever find any other matter, which would continually abide the fire, but this only, which is of an Unctuous substance, per∣fect and incombustible.

XXV. And this matter, when it is prepared as it ought, will transmute, or change all Bodies of a Me∣tallick substance, which it is rightly projected upon, into the most perfect Sol, or the most pure fine Gold; but most easily, and above all other Bodies Luna.

XXVI. Decoct first with Wind or Air, and after∣wards without Wind, until you have drawn forth the Venom [or Virtue] which is called the Soul, out of your matter; this is that which you seek, the everlasting Aqua vitae, which cures all Diseases. Now the whole Magistery is in the Va∣pour.

XXVII. Let the Body be put into a fire for 40 days, of Elemental heat: and in that decoction of 40 days, the Body will rejoyce with the Soul, and the Soul will rejoyce with the Body and Spirit, and the Spirit will rejoyce with the Body and Soul, and they will be fixed together, and dwell one with another, in which Life they will be made per∣petual and immortal with∣out separation for ever.