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. XXXVII. Of the Original of Metals, and Principles of the Mineral Work.

I. THE Bodies of all Natural Things be∣ing as well perfect as im∣perfect from the Original of time, and compounded of a quaternity of Elements or Natures, viz. Fire, Air, Earth, Water, are conjoyn∣ed by God Almighty in a perfect Unity.

II. In these four Elements is hid the Secret of Philoso∣phers: The Earth and Wa∣ter give Corporeity and Vi∣sibility: The Fire and Air, the Spirit and Invisible Power, which cannot be seen or touched but in the other two.

III. When these four E∣lements are conjoyned, and made to exist in one, they become another thing; whence it is evident, that all things in nature are com∣posed of the said Ele∣ments,

being altered and changed.

IV. So saith Rhasis, Sim∣ple Generation, and Natural Transformation is the Operati∣on of the Elements.

V. But it is necessary, that the Elements be of one kind, and not divers, to vit, Simple: For otherwise neither Action nor Passion could happen between them: So saith Aristotle, There is no true Generation, but of things agreeing in Na∣ture. So that things be not made but according to their Natures.

VI. The Eldar or Oak Trees will not bring forth Pears; nor can you gather Grapes of Thorns, or Figs of Thistles, things bring not forth, but only their like, or what agrees with them in Nature, each Tree its own Fruit.

VII. Our Secret there∣fore is to be drawn only out of those things in which it is. You cannot extract it out of Stones or Salt, or other Heterogene Bodies: Neither Salt nor Alum en∣ters into our mystery: But as Theophrastus saith, The Philosophers disguise with Salts and Alums, the Places of the Elements.

VIII. If you prudently desire to make our Elixir, you must extract it from a Mineral Root: For as Geber saith, You must obtain the perfection of the Matter from the Seeds thereof.

IX. Sulphur and Mercury are the Mineral Roots, and Natural Principles, upon which Nature her self acts and works in the Mines and Caverns of the Earth, which are Viscous Water, and Subtil Spirit running through the Pores, Veins, and Bow∣els of the Mountains.

X. Of them is produced a Vapour or Cloud, which is the substance and body of Metals united, ascending, and reverberating upon its own proper Earth, (as Ge∣ber sheweth) even till by a temperate digestion through the space of a Thousand

Years, the matter is fixed, and converted into a Mine∣ral Stone, of which metals are made.

XI. In the same manner of Sol which is our Sulphur, being reduced into Mercu∣ry by Mercury, which is the Viscous Water made thick, and mixt with its proper Earth, by a tempe∣rate decoction and digesti∣on, ariseth the Vapour or Cloud, agreeing in nature and substance with that in the Bowels of the Earth.

XII. This afterwards is turned into most subtil wa∣ter, which is called the Soul, Spirit, and Tincture, as we shall hereafter shew.

XIII. When this Water is returned into the Earth, (out of which it was drawn) and every way spreads through or is mixed with it, as its proper Womb, it be∣comes fixed. Thus the Wise man does that by Art in a short time, which Nature cannot perform in less than the Revolution of a Thou∣sand Years.

XIV. Yet notwithstand∣ing, it is not We that make the metal, but Nature her self that does it. Nor do or can we change one thing into another; but it is Na∣ture that changes them: We are no more than meer Servants in the work.

XV. Therefore Medus in Turba Philosophorum, saith, Our Stone naturally contains in it the whole Tincture. It is perfectly made in the Mountains and Body of the Earth; yet of it self (with∣out art) it has no life or power whereby to move the Elements.

XVI. Chuse then the na∣tural Minerals, to which, by the advice of Aristotle, add Art: For Nature gene∣rates Metaline Bodies of the Vapours, Clouds, or Fumes of Sulphur and Mercury, to which all the Philosophers agree. Know therefore the Principles upon which Art works, to wit, the Princi∣ples or beginnings of Me∣tals: For he that knows not these things shall never at∣tain

to the perfection of the Work.

XVII. Geber saith, He who has not in himself the knowledge, of the Natural Principles, is far from attain∣ing the perfection of the Art: being Ignorant of the Mi∣neral Root upon which he should work.

XVIII. Geber also farther saith, That our Art is only to be understood and Learned through the true wisdom and knowledge of Natural things: that is, with a wis∣dom searching into the Roots and Natural princi∣ples of the matter.

XIX. Yet saith he, my Son, I shew thee a Secret, though thou knowest the Principles, yet therein thou canst not follow Nature in all things. Herein some have erred, in Essaying to follow Nature in all her pro∣perties and differences.