COMPOUNDS.PDF

PREFACE

I will not hide a science which was revealed to me by the grace

of God; I will not jealously guard it for myself alone, for fear

of drawing His curse. A science kept secret, a hidden treasure,

what is it’s use? The science I have learned without invention,

I transmit to you without regret. Envy disrupts everything, an

envious man cannot be just before God. All science, all

knowledge comes from God; it is a simple way of speaking to

indicate that it comes from the Holy Spirit. No one can say: Our

Lord Jesus Christ without also understanding: Son of God the

Father, through the operation of the Holy Spirit.In the same

way, this science of truth cannot be separated from Him who

communicated it to me.

I have not been sent to all, but only to those who admire the

Lord in his works and whom God judges worthy. Only whosoever has

ears to hear His divine communication reveives the secrets which

have been transmitted to me by the grace of God, and these He

never reveals to those who are unworthy.

Nature must serve as the foundation and the mode of science:

the Art also works according to Nature as far as it can. It is

necessary then, that the Artist observe Nature and operate as

she operates.

CHAPTER I

OF THE FORMATION OF THE METALS GENERALLY FROM

THE SULFUR AND THE MERCURY

It is observed that the essence of metals,insofar as we know, is

to be produced in a general manner from Sulfur and Mercury. The

differences alone of cooking and digestion results in a

diversification of the metallic nature. I personally observed

that in a single vessel, in the same vein, so to speak, nature

had produced many metals, along with some silver disseminated

here and there. We have clearly demonstrated in our treatise on

minerals that the generation of metals is circular, that is, one

passes easily from one to another following a circle, the cousin

metals having similar properties; it is because of this that

silver changes more readily into gold than any other metal.

Indeed, there is not much in changing the color and weight of

silver, this is easy, because a compact substance increases its

weight quite readily. And since it contains a yellowishwhite

Sulfur, its color will also be easy to transform.

It is the same with other metals. The Sulfur is, so to speak,

their father and the Mercury, their mother.

Again, it is most true, if one says of it that in the union the

Sulphur represents the sperm of the father and that the Mercury

acts as a coagulated Menstruum in order to form the embryonic

—1—

substance. The sulphur cannot alone produce, just as the father

alone cannot produce.

In the same way that the male begets his proper substance, in

mixture with the menstrual blood, likewise the Sulphur produces

with the Mercury, but alone it produces nothing. By this

comparison we make note that the Alchemist will have to raise at

the outset, the specificity of the metal which has given him the

Nature, then that he proceeds as nature proceeded, with the

Mercury and the Sulphur prepared and purified always following

the example of Nature.

THE SULPHUR CONTAINS THREE HUMID PRINCIPLES.

The first of these principles is especially elevated and

volatile, one finds it in the exterior parts of the Sulphur, for

the same reason, that of the great volatility of its elements,

which ignite easily and consume the bodies with which they come

into contact.

The second principle is phlegmatic, otherwise called aqueous; it

is found in close association with the former. The third is

radical, fixed, adherent to the internal parts. That one alone

is general, and one cannot separate it from the others without

destroying the whole edifice. The first principle does not

resist the fire; being combustible, it consumes itself in the

fire and calcines the substance of the metal with which one

heats it. Therefore, it is not only useless, but detrimental

besides, to the goal which we set ourselves. The second

principle does not make the bodies moist, it does not produce,

it cannot serve us at all. The third is radical, it penetrates

all the particles of the matter which are necessary to its

essential properties.

—2—

It is necessary to rid the Sulphur of the first two principles

in order that the subtility of the third force serve us in

making a perfect compound.

The fire is nothing other than the vapor of the Sulphur; the

vapor of the Sulphur, well purified and sublimed white and ren-

dered very compact. Also the Alchemists are accustomed to skill-

fully raising the two superfluous principles in the Sulphur by

way of acid baths, such as vinegar of lemons, sour milk, the

milk of goats, the urine of infants, etc. They purify it by

lixiviation, digestion and sublimation. It is necessary,

finally, to rectify it by reduction in a manner so as not to

have more than one pure substance containing the active,

perfectible brother-force of the metal. Behold! We are in

possession of one part of our work.

OF THE NATURE OF THE MERCURY

The Mercury contains two superfluous substances, the earth and

the water. The earthy substance has something of the Sulphur,

the fire reddens it. The aqueous substance has superfluous

humidity. One easily rids the Mercury of its watery and earthy

impurities by sublimation and very acid baths. Nature separates

it into the dry state of the Sulphur and robs it of its earth by

the heat of the Sun and the Stars.

It obtains thus a pure Mercury,completely free of its earthy

substance, containing no more foreign particles. It unites it

then with a pure Sulphur and produces in the end the pure and

perfect metals in the heart of the earth. If the two principles

are impure, the metals are imperfect. This is why one finds

—3—

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