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. LII. The Preface or Enterance into this Work and the Definition of the Art.

I. AFter many ways and in divers manners, the Ancient Philosophers have through all their wri∣tings delivered themselves; and in AEnigmaes or Riddles, they have wholly Clouded and left shadowed to us, the most Noble Science, and as it were under a Veil of De∣speration, have wholly de∣nyed Us the knowledge thereof, and that not with∣out cause.

II. For which Reason sake, I here signifie (that you may the more firmly Establish your mind) I have in the following Chapters declared (more plainly than is taught in any other writings) the whole Art of the Transformation of Me∣tals.

III. And if you often re∣volve these instructions in your minds, you will ob∣tain the knowledge of the beginning, the middle, and the end of the Work; and you shall see such a subtilty of Wisdom, and such a pu∣rity of matter, which shall amply repleat your Soul, and fill you with Satisfa∣ctions.

IV. Now in the ancient Codes, many definitions of this Art are to be found, the meaning of which it be∣hoves us to consider, Hermes saith concerning this Art, it is the Science of compounded Bodies, joyning together, (through the knowledge of the matter and its effects or Ope∣rations) the more pretious things one to another, and by a Natural Commixion, to con∣vert or transmute the same in∣to a better kind.

V. Another Defines it thus, Alchymie is a Science, teaching how to transmute all kinds of Metals, one into ano∣ther, and this by a proper Medi∣cine, as appears in many Books of the Philosophers.

VI. Wherefore, Alchymie is the Art or Science, teaching how to make or generate a certain kind of Medicine, which is called the Elixir, and which being projected upon Metals, or imperfect Bodies, by throughly Tinging and fixing them, perfects them in the highest degree, even in the very moment of Projection.