Ripley reviv'd, or, An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's hermetico-poetical works containing the plainest and most excellent discoveries of the most hidden secrets of the ancient philosophers, that were ever yet published / written by Eirenæus Philalethes ...

And for thy proportion thou must beware, For therein mayst thou be beguil'd, Therefore thy Work that thou not mar.

AFter the knowledge of the true mate∣rial Subject, and its Preparation, the next main thing to be understood is the mystery of Proportion, which is a secret of no light concernment, for many erre therein. Thou shalt therefore under∣stand, that our Proportion is two-fold, Internal and External; the Internal pon∣dus is a Labyrinth in which all erre who know our Subject as many do, but not its Proportion. He who would effect any thing, must principally learn this which is set down in Golden words, in Bernard Trevisan his Treatise of the Chymical Mi∣racle: The Sulphur, saith he, which is in the Mercury, and predominates not, is the Fire alone which governs the whole Work;

and he therefore that in these things would be a skilful Artist, let him know how much Fire is beyond other Elements in subtilty, and what a proportion of it will overcome all the rest. These Golden words, worthy to be ingraven in Marble, are the true foun∣dation of our pondus.