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 here a secret I will to thee disclose, Which is the ground of our secrets all, And it not known thou shalt but lose Thy labour and costs both great and small: Take heed therefore in error that thou not fall. The more thine Earth, and the less thy moi∣sture be, The rather and better Solution shalt thou see.

ANd here take notice by the way, that that is no total Dissolution which is before Calcination, but only partial, the Water resolves as much as it can of the Body, so much that it doth sever between its Spirit and Body; but by reason of its perfection and strong compaction, it finds a great deal of difficulty before a total Resolution, and therefore it putrefies what is most gross, and thus brings it to Atoms, which when it is once subtilized

beyond the exigency of its own nature, it then is dissolved, and relents, and then Dissolution is made totally, viz. after Putrefaction. Then at length it becomes all like a glorious Argent vive, and this immediately before the Lunary Coagula∣tion: Know then that our first loosing is into a viscous Powder, which is brought on by Incrudation, or rather Liquefacti∣on; for know that till after Putrefaction, our Stone and Compound is moist in the Fire, but hardens more and more by how much the colder it is, and softens more and more by how much hotter it is, and the heat slacking, the boiling will change into a seeming Vegetation, and the Fire going out, it is hard rather than soft, yet the mingling of the Natures is known by the colours, and drawing to Calcination. Therefore thy first Operation is to dry up thy superfluous watrish moisture, not evaporating it, but congealing it on the Body. Think not then, as some of the envious Sophistically write, that the more you put of your Water, the sooner you dissolve, and congeal the slower: No ve∣rily, your Calcination is but the medium

of true Solution, which is (trust me) not total nor proper till after Putrefaction. I should never have told thee this Myste∣ry, had not the love of my Neighbour compelled me. That opening of the Body which is before, is but an opening of its pores, which lets our Water in, and then after death and resurrection the Mercury of Sol is visible to the eye, which before was but distinguishable by its effect.