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 under the temperate heat of the Sun, Thy Elements shall be incinerate soon, And then hast thou the Mastery won. Thank God thy Work was so begun: For then hast thou one token true, Which first in blackness to thee will shew.

WHen thou hast by thy first Waters Pontick virtue and firiness, so far dissolved thy Body as to set at liberty its internal Sulphur, then thy Operations will be speedy; for the Sulphur of the Water, together with the natural Sulphur of thy Gold, by mixture will make an unnatural Fire, which will then burn like to the Fire of Hell, first making a total end of that dissolution which was but in part made by the Water, and after that dry∣ing up and congealing its own moisture, and the moisture of the Water, uniting the Sulphur of the Sun and the Sulphur of the Water, and the Mercury of the Sun

and the Mercury of the Water, and the united Sulphur prevailing over the united Humidity, rotting it into powder as small as Atoms, black of the blackest black, thou shalt then see a total mixture of Seeds, and death of thy Compound. This rotting will begin about the 42, 46 or 50^th day; and the signs of it are, the Fumes will not ascend, but the Matter will boil at the bottom of the Glass▪ like to melted Pitch, boiling and bubbling, swelling and puffing in a black colour, every day blacker and blacker, shewing changable rotting colours in its boiling. This will continue till it be so thick, that it boil not, but grow hard and swell; yet it will vary often, and appear sometimes as though dry, and sometimes a little moi∣sture will appear, with fresh bubbling, but no Fumes. And this will last about 46 days, no Fumes rising at all, so that about the 84^th or 90^th day, after thy Matters begin to be boiled in a continual de∣coction, Putrefaction will be compleat, and then Sublimation or Circulation will begin again, which in 46 or 50 days will end in a white Dove.

This first token of blackness proclaims thee a Master, after which thou canst not well miss, unless thou wilt. This is the astonishment of Art, to make Gold vola∣tile, which was so fixed: be patient then, and boyl continually till your Gold be∣gin to dissolve, and come upon the Wa∣ter like a Cream. Then continue your decoction till the colour begin to change into an imperfect Citrine, with moisture, and send up yellowish vapours. This Ci∣trine will soon be mixed with a blewish black, and yet continue the decoction till the Clouds begin to rise, and a dark mist: then continue your boyling, till breath fail, that is, the Clouds and Fumes arise no more; then the Compound boyl at the bottom without Fumes, and will shew dark, obscure, reddish, yellowish, blewish, gray and blackish colours; then continue your decoction till the Body and whole Compound begin to rot into Atoms, which the 50^th day will give you a Harbinger or fore-runner of, with Pit∣chy blackness; then know that all is tho∣rowly mingled together, and will never cease till the damned Earth come, the

Earth of Leaves, which is a dust im∣palpable.