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 ...

Do this with heat easie and nourishing, First with moist Fire, and after that with dry, The Flegm with patience out-drawing, And after that the other Natures wittily: Dry up thine Earth until it be thirsty, By Calcination, else labourest thou in vain, And then make it drink up the moisture again.

THis is a heat which is friendly to the Bodies, for it causeth the Spirit to ascend, and yet suffers it to return, and by reason of its ascending and returning, the Matter below stands continually moist, and boileth with a perpetual mo∣tion and exhalation, which ascends and returns day and night every hour and minute without intermission.

This moist Air, or liquid form at bot∣tom, with Ebullition and sending forth a spiritual smoak or Vapour, (in which, saith Artephius, the whole Mastery con∣sists) continues about six weeks, or there∣abouts, and then the boiling will turn to a Pitchy swelling, and puffing up like

Leavened Dough; and from that time the Compound shall grow dryer and dryer, coming at length to Pitch-black Atoms, or Powder impalpable, and the fumes shall cease for six weeks.

Be patient therefore in decoction, and wait with a great deal of confidence, un∣til thou seest thy Water, which at first ascends white and flegmatick, to begin to change colour, and the Exhalations to arise discoloured within the Glass. Then continue your decoction till the Cloud which is conceived be brought forth: for in this Operation be sure that the Seeds begin to mingle, and will give you a sign of the beginning of the Conjunction of Natures, and that is the gilding of the Glass about the sides within the Con∣cave, as if it were overspread with leaves of pure Gold.

Continue still your decoction till the Earth at the bottom begin to appear, and the moisture of the Compound be∣gin to be terminated in Di••ess, in colour Black, which is a sure sign of your right progress, and without which you can ne∣ver attain the Mastery.

Remember that in this Calcination thou hast a portion of Water in the up∣per part of thy Vessel, which did not de∣scend; and in the time of the ceasing of the fumes, the Body grows very dry, even to Calcination, which when it is in∣tirely perfected, the Water is as it were by a Magnetical virtue drawn down, and then follows a second Liquefaction.