CHAP. II. Of the Conjunction of the Male with the Female.

HAving now treated of the Furnace and the Fire wherein the Tinctures are to be pre∣pared, now we intend largely to write how the Man and Woman do agree, and how they are joyned together: that is to say, after this man∣ner: Take the Mercury of the Philosophers, pre∣pared and mundified in its highest degree; this resolve with his Wife, to wit, with quick Mer∣cury; as the Woman receiveth the Man, and as the Man cleaveth to the Woman: and even as a Man loveth his Wife, and the Woman loveth her Husband, so do the Philosophers Mercury and the quick Mercury, prosecute the greatest love, and are moved by Nature with a great affection towards us: So therefore the one and the other Mercuries are conjoyned each to other, and one with another, even as the Man with the Woman, and she with him, according to their bodies, that there is no difference between them; and they are congruent in their strength and proprieties, save onely, that the Man is firm and fixed, but the Woman is volatile in the Fire. And for this Cause, the Woman is united to the Man, so that she receiveth the Man, and he fixeth and fastneth her firm and constant in any balance; as it followeth, They are both to be so close Page  24 luted and covered, that the Woman may not e∣vaporate or breath out, otherwise the whole Work will come to nothing.