To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
I. I Shall endeavour Sir, to explicate, open, and make plain to you, the Secrets of Alchymie, which I have attained to, by my Travels through Italy, and other Countries and King∣doms for the space of Nine
Years, drawing Forth, and Selecting the true Root, and Marrow of Nature (by a series of Experiences) from its most inward Recesses, and secret Habitations.
II. The which I am mo∣ved and compelled to from the singular Good-will, en∣tire Affections, and Sincere Love, which as well as in times past, I now at present bear unto you: And there∣fore shall faithfully (tho' briefly) declare the Secrets of this Art to you; plainly and openly, not Darkly and AEnigmatically, as if it was done under a Shadow or Vail.
III. Such indeed is your Life (your Works witnes∣sing the same) that you are as a healing Balm, a Refuge of Defence, and Shelter to the Church of God, a Pil∣lar of his Holy Temple, for which Reasons, I am ob∣liged to reveal these hidden Mysteries, and make known to you the abscondite Paths of Nature, not to rejoyce your outward Man only, by adding Health and long Life, heaping up Treasures, and external Honours and Applause in the World, but to excite in you the highest Devotion to God Almighty, that you might become good to all Men, profitable to the Church, a Father to the Fatherless, and a San∣ctuary to the Needy and Distressed.
IV. And in these things, I am confident of you, in whom is found such a Por∣tion and Treasure of Vertue, Prudence, Piety, and true Wisdom, but most chiefly, for that I know you to be such a one, who has God always before your Eyes.
V. And therefore I speak truly and fervently, and I will declare the Truth to you, with all faithfulness according to the reality of my Soul; I shall Elucidate the undoubted Verity, and declare such things, as with much Labour, Care, and Diligence I have sought out, and obtained the know∣ledge of; which I have seen with my Eyes, and have handled with my Hands,
and which my own self has done: And in this matter I will neither be tedious nor obscure, lest that love which I profess to you, should seem to be deficient or im∣perfect.
VI. Whatever I write, I shall open the same briefly and plainly beseeching God, that the matter whereof I shall entreat, may become profitable unto you; and that if you shall please to put the same into practice you may find the faithful experience thereof, and not be deceived, or spend your time in vain: For we know certainly, that of all transi∣tory things, Time is truly the most pretious.
VII. Wherefore I write unto you (honourable and dearly beloved Friend) such things only as may be pro∣fitable; making this humble suit unto your Excellency, that the Revealed Secrets and Experiments which I send you in this little Book, may not be prostituted, or bestowed upon unworthy Men, who are naughty, or swoln up with Pride, or whose Souls are bound up in their Covetousness.
VIII. I require not of you for this Secret, a great Summ of Gold or Silver; nor do I put this Secret in writing, for you to bestow much Cost and Expences upon it; nor do I for my self desire any reward; these things agree not with the Philosophick Verity, which professes, that its Works are not chargeable and Expen∣sive. Morienus saith, beware that you spend nothing in this Magistery of Gold. And Dastine, saith with the Value of one Noble is the whole Magi∣stery performed.
IX. Since then it is so, in what thing is our Gold to be found? Is it not in Mercury, which is called Quick or living Gold? Ray∣mandus saith, He that will reduce Quick-Gold into thin water, must make it, doe it, and Work it by its contrary. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 saith he, Quick or living Gold, has in its self, four Na∣tures, and four humours or Elements. And therefore
saith he, if you putrefie its Cold with its Hot, and its Dry with its Moist, you shall not only have the Humidity of all Bodies, but you shall have a Menstruum, which will dissolve Argent Vive for ever. For the least part of Mer∣cury being once dissolved, the dissolved Mercury will always dissolve Mercury ad Infinitum.
X. [Mercury may as well be called Quick-Gold, as Quick-Silver, for it contains them both. If Air will make this separation, we must put thereto divers contrary things, as Roger Bacon saith in Speculo. But this putrefacti∣on cannot be done, till it is dissolved in Water white as Milk, putrifie that Milk 15 days in B. M. then separate its Element, and cleanse its Earth, and after that joyn it again in equal weight, then is the Elixir made compleate for Saturn and Jupiter. Quick Gold is Crude, Imperfect, and unfixt in every degree and yet it is accounted a Body, altho' there be no fixation in it, and there∣fore it may be much sooner brought to its first matter, than any other of the Bodies, that have any part of fixation in them, for they must have much Labour and long time to separate them, and bring them back into their fixt matter.]
XI. For saith Lully, The Elements of Mercury may be dissolved, and being so dissolved, they may be se∣parated. There be some that think our Resoluble Seed, or dissolved Men∣strum, is the water of Ar∣gent Vive, made only by it self, because it does dissolve both Metals, and pretious Stones which we call Pearls; and so it is. Now how this dissolving Menstrum is made, not only Raymund seems to shew, but Roger Bacon in like manner in his Speculum Alchymiae, where he saith, put the Body which is most weighty, into a Distillatory, and draw forth thereof, its Sweet Ros, or Dew, with a little Wind, or Breath: [for betwixt every drop of Water, comes forth a Breath, as it were of a Man, which is the substance of Argent Vive, and which the Philoso∣phers call our Mercury: which
if it be well putrefied before hand, will then yield the more, and Issue out forcibly, as if it were Wild-Fire out of a Trunk, especially when the Red Fume comes.] Thus have you one of our Argent Vives.
XII. To the same thing Raymundus assents, where he saith, then have you that Argent Vive, which is called Ours; and so it is indeed one of Our Argent Vive; altho' the intent of the same Philosopher in Libro Animae Artis Transmu∣tatoriae, Cap. 2. was touch∣ing another more noble and more excellent Water [sup∣posed by some, to be Our Burning-Water, drawn out of the Gum of Vitriol,] by the Virtue of which most Noble and Excellent, attractive Water, he did not only often dissolve the Body of Sol [not as he doth it with the aforesaid Argent Vive commonly dissolved] but also the same solar Bo∣dy, by force of that attra∣ctive Virtue, is disposed in a more noble manner; as I my self have seen done, not only in the Metalline Elixir, but also in the Elixir of Life, as hereafter shall be declared, Chap. 71, 72. Sect.
XIII. It is fansied by an Experienced Philosopher, that Mercury did speak, and said, I am the Father of Enchantments, Brother to the Sun, and Sister to the Moon, I am the Water of Life drawn out of Wine, [i. e. out of the Wine of Mercury] I kill that which was alive, and make alive that which was dead; I make Black, and I make White, and I carry in my Belly the Sol of Philoso∣phers; and therefore he that can joyn me after that I am dissolved, and made the pure clear and Silver like Water, called Lac Vir∣ginis, with my Brother the Sun, he shall tinge him with my Soul, not only much more than he was before by an hundred fold, but also if he be joyned with my Sister Luna, he shall make all things fair and bright. [this Lac Virginis is a Silver-like Water some∣what thick.]