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 ...

If the Water also be equal in proportion To the Earth with heat in due measure, Of them will spring a new Burgeon, Both white and red in a Tincture pure, Which in the Fire shall ever endure. Kill thou the quick, the dead revive; Make Trinity Ʋnity without any strive. This is the surest and best proportion,

For there is least of the part spiritual; The better therefore shall be solution, Then if thou didst it with Water small, Thine Earth over-glutting which loseth all. Take heed therefore to Potters Loam, And make thou never too nesh thy Womb. That Loam behold how it temper'd is, The mean also by which it is Calcinate, And ever in mind look thou bear this, That never thine Earth with Water be suffo∣cate.

ALso if your Water have its proportion qualified accordingly, you may tem∣per it with your Earth almost in an equal quality, that is, two to three, or three to four; but be sure then of your due go∣vernment of external Fire, and a just size of your Vessel, and so you may expect from this mixture Conception and Gene∣ration: for in this pondus you shall find the death of the Spirit, and the quick∣ning of the Body, and the exalting of your Tincture first into white, and after that into red, which will have ingress in∣to Bodies, and tyne them permanently and radically. Though the Tincture is

largest where the Water is most, but the work is speediest where the Water is least, the Fire is also less hazardable; but your true proportion of your Mer∣cury for such a pondus is hard to be found, and thou wilt not easily find it unless thou be very skilful; the middle propor∣tion is less difficult, that of three to one is worse, for a Tyro, because he may very easily have his time made tedious by it. The last would be better for such a one, if it were not so hard to apprehend, for the Body would soon be made no Body, and the Spirit mortified, and so Union would follow in a short time, in comparison to other proportions. So then if thou knowest how to prepare thy Mercury aright for its Internal proportion, the lesser thou puttest of the Spirit, the better and quicker shall be thy Calcination and Dissolution; and the more thou givest of the Water, the longer thou shalt be in attaining the mastery: but if thou glut thy Earth with Water, thou wilt so suffo∣cate the active virtue, that thy moisture will not be dried up; at least it would re∣quire so tedious a decoction, that thou

wouldest never see the effect. But the mediocrity is for thee the best, at least at first; be not too covetous, nor too pro∣digal, for over-driness and over-moisture are both enemies to Generation, and make a barren Womb. If thou be'st witty to apprehend therefore, I shall shew you the certain way of External proportion; for know, that as the Water is qualified internally, so doth it act externally, and if thou canst apprehend the sympathy that is between the inward quality, and the outward effect, thou mayst easily dis∣cern by what is apparent to sight, that which is hiddenly contained. Then for your true information take this rule: Let your Body be very well subtilized, and very pure, (which is a great matter, at the least 24 Carrats) mix this at first with twice as much of its Water, and grind it either on a clean Glass, or Mar∣ble Mortar; grind it thorowly, as Pain∣ters use to grind their Colours, and make not a light matter of this, for lack of one half hour or hours pains in thy Amalgamation, thou mayst set thy work backward 20 or 30 days; for the more

subtlely the Amalgama is mixed, the more easily▪ and speedily it resolves into Mer∣cury, and is wrought upon, and the signs appear. When thou hast soundly and well ground it, and washed it very clean, and dried it very thorowly, so that there be not the least moisture in it, observe the temper; if it be plyable like to Paste, yet so as when you incline it this way or that, you see no Water run to the incli∣ning side, which you may easily discern, it is a good & sure temper; but if it be so hard and dry, that it will not spread easily, it lacks moisture; or if that Hydropi∣cal water run as it were within a skin, to the declining side of your Amalgama, add more of your Body to it, till you see that sign no more; and grind it thorow∣ly, as is said, and rather chuse to lean to the other hand, then to this, for there is nothing more irksome to an Artist in his Scholarship, then to wait for his signs beyond the time.