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 ...

For by such Calcination their bodies be shent, Which minisheth the moisture of our Stone; Therefore when bodies to powder are brent, Dry as ashes of Tree or Bone, Of such Calxes then will we none: For moisture we multiply radical, In Calcining minishing none at all.

THen said she, Besides that they work not on the true Matter, they work not in a right way, which are two most desperate errors; for our work is to make a substance fluid, penetrating and entring, that may have ingress into im∣perfect Metals: for which cause we do preserve humidity, without which our Stone cannot be penetrative. So then in∣stead of purifying the crude, and ripen∣ing what is raw by these Calcinations, the tender Soul is put to flight, and the crudities are the more strongly vitrified, so that all hope of fruit is wholly by this means taken away: for take this for a rule, whatever either by violence of Fire,

or Corrosives, is turned into a dry Pow∣der or Calx, it is wholly reprobate in our work: for though we Calcine, yet it is in such a Fire in which our moisture is not burnt, and in such a Vessel so clo∣sed that the Spirits are retained, and in a word so sweet is our Regimen in refe∣rence to our Matter, that moisture is ad∣vanced, and is made more unctuous, and by consequent more ingressive.