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 ...

Position IV.

From equal Pondus of Earth and Water, Three of Water to One of the Earth is good, but equal is best.

THen make the Mercury Four to the Sun, Two to the Moon, &c. as it should be in Figure of the Trinity. And so we come to take notice of the Doctrine of Propor∣tion between the Earth and Water, e∣qual that is best; the same saith our Au∣thor in his Chapter of Calcination. This is the surest and best proportion, speaking of equal Pondus of Earth and Water; and gives the Reason, because Solution will be sooner made, viz.

The more thy Earth, the less thy Water be, The sooner and better Solution shalt thou see.

And here he affirms the same of Calci∣nation, which goes before Solution. Yet Three of the Water to One of the Earth, will do well, lest the Tincture should not

have room to be sufficiently dilated in the Water, and the Body opened by it; and this is the Pondus of Roger Bacon, which requires a longer time before the quick be kil'd; and by consequence, the revi∣ving of the dead must be longer in doing; For Calcination is nothing else, but a kil∣ling the moist with the dry; till which be done, there is no reviving of the dry by the moist, but they have one and the same Operation and Period of time; for one dies not, but the other revives: nor doth the Dragon die, but with its Sister.