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Of The Sulphur And Ferment Of The Philosophers

I have formerly told you plainly how the Philosophers' Sulphur is made; in loco masculi pour this Spirit upon purged and fined Gold. Let it dissolve and putrefy fourteen days, in Balneo Mariae distil it and pour the water again on  the Gold calx, and cohobate this until the Gold pours over with the water; set this again to distil, abstract the water gently, leave a third part of it in the bottom, then set it into a cellar; let it coagulate and crystallise, wash these crystals with distilled water, amalgamate them with Mercury vive, evaporate the Mercury gently, then you have a subtile powder; put it in a glass, lute it, reverberate it for three days and nights, doing it gently; thus is the philosophers' Sulphur well prepared for your work and this is the Purple Mantle or Philosophic Gold; keep it safe in a glass for your conjunction.

Of The Philosophic Vitriol

After the philosophers' Sulphur is made, which in loco masculi is to make the King or man, now you must have the female or wife, which is the Mercury of the Philosophers or the materia prima lapidis, which must be made artificially; for our Azoth is not common Vinegar, but is extracted with the common Azoth, and there is a Salt made of materia prima or Mercury of the Philosophers, which is coagulated in the belly of the earth. When this matter is brought to light it is not clear and it is found everywhere; it is ponderous and hath a scent of a dead body. Take this matter, distil, calcine, sublime and reduce it to ashes, for if an artist want ashes, how can he make a Salt, and he that hath not a metalline Salt, how can he make the philosophers' Mercury?

Therefore if you have calcined the matter, then extract its Salt, rectify it well, let it shoot into the Vitriol, which must be sweet without any corrosiveness or sharpness of Salt. Then you get the philosophers' Vitriol or Philosophic Oil. Make further of it a mercurial water. Thus you have performed an artificial work. This is called the philosophers' Azoth, which purgeth Laton that is not yet washed. For Azoth washeth Laton, as the ancient philosophers have told two or three thousand years agone. For the philosophical Salt or Laton must with its own humidity, or its own mercurial water be purged, dissolved, distilled, attract its Magnet and stay with it. And this is the philosophers' Mercury or Mercurius duplicatus, and it consists of two Spirits, or a Spirit and a water of the Salt of Metals. Then this water beareth the name of Succus Lunaris, Aqua Coelestis, Acetum Philosophorum, Aqua Sulphuris, Aqua Permanens, Aqua Benedicta. Take eight or ten parts of this water and one part of the Ferment or Sulphur of Sol; set it in the philosophers' egg, lute it well; put it in the athanor, into that vaprous yet dry fire; govern it to the appearance of a black, white and red colour; then you get the Philosophers' Stone.

Of The Philosophic Magnet

Hermes, the father of the philosophers, had this art and was the first that wrote of it and prepared the Stone out of Mercury, Sol and Luna of the philosophers, whom some hundred laborators have imitated. I do assure you for a truth that the philosophers' Stone is composed of two bodies; the beginning and ending of it must be with philosophic Mercury.

And this is now prima materia and is coagulated in the entrails of the earth, first into Mercury, then into Lead, then into Tin and Copper, then into Iron, etc. Thus the coagulated Mercury must by art be turned into its prima materia or water, that is mercurial water.

This is a stone and no stone, of which is made a volatile fire in the form of a water, which drowneth and dissolveth its fixed father and its volatile mother. Mettaline Salt is an imperfect body which turneth to philosophic Mercury, that is a permanent or blessed water, and is the philosophers' Magnet, which loveth its philosophic Mars, sucketh unto him and abideth with him. Thus our Sol hath a Magnet also, which Magnet is the first root and matter of our Stone. If you conceive of and understand my saying and what Hermes saith, three things are required for the work; first a volatile or mercurial water, aqua coelestis, then Leo viridis, which is the philosophic Lune, thirdly does Hermetis, Sol or Ferment.

Lastly note philosophers had two ways, a wet one, which I made use of, and a dry one. Herein you must proceed philosophically; you must purge well the philosophers' Mercury and make Mercury with Mercury, adding the philosophic Salt, Ferment or Sulphur of philosophers and then you have firstly the philosophers' magnet, that is the philosophers' Mercury, secondly the metalline Salt or philosophic Salt, thirdly oes Hermetis or philosophic Sulphur.

A Process Upon The Philosophic Work Of Vitriol

Take ten pound of Vitriol dissolved in distilled rain water; being warmed let it stand for a day and a night. At that time many feces were settled. I filtered the matter, evaporated it gently ad cuticulum usque. I set it in a cool place to crystallise. This onshot Vitriol I exiccated, dissolved it again in distilled rain water, let it shoot again, which work I iterated so till the Vitriol got a celestial green colour, having no more any feces about it, and lost all his corrosiveness and was of a very pleasant taste.

This highly putrefied Vitriol, thus crude and not calcined. I put into a coated retort, distilled it in open fire, drove it over in twelve hours space by an exact government of fire in a white fume. When no more of these fumes came and the red corrosive oil began to come, then I let the fire go out. The next morning, all being cold, I took off the receiver, poured the gift in the receiver into a body, and some of the lute being fallen in too, I filtered it and had a fair menstrual water, which had some phlegm because I took that Vitriol uncalcined, which I abstracted in Balneo, not leaving one drop.

I found my Chaos in the bottom of a dark redness, very ponderous, which I poured into a viol, sealed it hermeticê, set it on a three-foot into a wooden globe into a vaprous bath made of water, where I left it so long till all was dissolved. After some weeks it separated into two parts, into a bright, transparent water and into an earth, which settled to the bottom of the glass in the form of a thick, black corrosive like pitch.

I separated the white spirit from it and the fluid black matter I set in again to be dissolved. The white Spirit which was dissolved out of it I separated again. This work I reiterated, leaving nothing in the bottom save a dry, red earth. After that I purged my white Spirit per distillationem very exactly; it was as pure as the tear that falls from the eye. The remaining earth I exiccated under a muffle; it was porous and as dry as dust. On this I poured again my white Spirit and set it in a digestion. This Spirit extracted the Sulphur or philosophic Gold and was tinged of a red yellow. I canted it off from the matter and in a body I abstracted the Spirit from the Sulphur. That Sulphur stayed behind in the form of an oil, very fiery, nothing being like unto its heat, as red as Ruby. The abstracted white Spirit I poured on the earth again, extracted further in Sulphur and put it to the former. After this that corpus terrae looked of a paler colour, which I calcined for some hours under a muffle and put it into a body; on it I poured my white Spirit and extracted its pure, white, fixed Salt. The remaining earth was very porous, and good for nothing, which I flung away; thus these three principles were fully and perfectly separated.

After this I took my astral, clarified Salt, which weighed half an ounce after the weight at Strasbourg in Germany, and of the white Spirit, which weighed four ounces, of Mercury one ounce and a quarter of an ounce. These I divided into two parts, whose quantity was half an ounce and one dram. I put this Salt to one part of the other in a viol and nipped it and set it in digestion; there I saw perfectly how the Salt dissolved itself again in this Spirit, therefore I poured to it the other part, which was half an ounce and one dram. No sooner this was put to it than presently the body, together with the Spirit, turned as black as coal, ascended to the end of the glass, and having no room to go any further, it moved to and fro. Sometimes it settled to the bottom; by and by it rose to the middle; then it rose higher. Thus it moved from the fourth of July to the seventh of August, namely thirty-four days, which wonderful work I beheld with admiration. At last these were united and turned to a black powder staying on the bottom and was dry. Seeing that it was so I increased my fire in one degree, took it out of the wet and set it in ashes; after ten days the matter on the bottom began to look somewhat white, at which I rejoiced heartily. This degree of fire I continued till the matter above and below became as white as the glittering snow. But it was not yet fixed as I discovered upon making trial of it, so I set it in again and increased my fire one degree higher; then the matter began to ascend and descend, moved on high, stayed in the middle of the glass, not touching the bottom of it. This lasted thirty-eight days and nights, and I beheld them as well as formerly, at the thirty days, a variety of colours which I am not able to express.

At last this powder fell to the bottom and became fixed. I made projection with it, putting one grain of it to one and a quarter ounce of Mercury, transmuting the same into very good Lune. Now it was time to restore unto this white tincture her true anima, and imbibe it, to bring it from its whiteness unto redness and to its perfect virtue.

Thereupon I took the third principle, namely the anima, which hitherto I had reserved, (in quantity it was one ounce and one dram) poured it to my reserved Spirit of Mercury, (whose quantity was one ounce and a quarter of an ounce) and drew it over several times per alembicum so that they in the end united together. I then divided them into seven equal parts; one part I poured on my clarified earth or tincture, which greedily embraced its anima, together with its Spirit, and turned to a ruddiness in twelve days and nights, but had no tingeing quality as yet, saving that Mercury vive and Saturn it transmuted into Lune, which Lune at the separating yielded three grains of Gold. I proceeded further with my imbibation and carried all the seven parts of the anima into my tincture; at the fourth imbibation one part of my work tinged ten parts of Copper into Gold; at the fifth imbibation one part tinged an hundred parts; at the sixth it tinged a thousand parts; at the seventh it tinged ten thousand parts. At this time I got of the true Medicine four ounces, half an ounce and one dram.

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