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 now in wet, &c. To be shall cause it soon to putrefie, And so shall thou bring to rotting thy Gold, Intreat thy Bodies, &c. And in thy putrefying with heat be not too swift, Lest in the Ashes thou seek after thy thrift.

OUr Operation then, saith Morien, is nothing else but extracting Water from the Earth, and returning it again upon the Earth, so long and so often till the Earth putrefie; for by elevation of the moisture the Body is heated and dried, and by returning it again it is cooled and moistned, by the continua∣tion of which successive Operations, it is brought to corrupt and rot, to lose

its form, and for a season to remain as dead.

This is the true intention and manner of our working, and there is no other manner of working that can be invented, that can give thee the effect of this our Operation; for this is the true way and means by which thy Body of Gold will be destroyed, and no other way profita∣ble for our Art: Proceed therefore as I have directed thee, and swerve not either to the right hand or to the left. Take this Body which I have shewed thee, and joyn it with the Spirit which is proper to it, which the Wise men have called their Venus, or Goddess of Love, and circulate these two Natures one upon the other, until the one have conceived by the other.

But beware you urge not the Spirit too much, but remember that he is a volatile substance, and if he be over-provoked, he will certainly break the Vessel, and fly, and leave thee the ruines of thy Glass for a recompence of thy over-speedy rashness; which trust me will make thee fetch a deep Philosophi∣cal

sigh, and say when it is too late, I would I had been content to wait Na∣tures time. Let the Fire then be such in which thy Spirit may be so stirred up, as to return to its Body in the Glass, and not so irritated as to break the Vessel, and return to the Ashes or Sand of the Nest, or stick about the sides of the Cover of your Nest, or else fly about in the Room wherein the Artist is, and lodge in his Head, and so make it far more uncon∣stant then it was before, by adding to his rash giddiness a Paralytical shaking.