Alchemical Mass

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Q. Whence are they derived?
A. I have already stated that they are derived from a homogeneous body wherein they are found in great abundance,
whence also Philosophers know how to extract both by an admirable, and entirely philosophical, process.
Q. When this operation has been duly performed, to what other point of the practice must they next apply
themselves?
A. To the confection of the philosophical amalgam, which must be done with great care, but can only be
accomplished after the preparation and sublimation of the Mercury.
Q. When should your matter be combined with the living gold?
A. During the period of amalgamation only, that is to say, Sulphur is introduced into it by means of the
amalgamation, and thenceforth there is one substance; the process is shortened by the addition of Sulphur, while the
tincture at the same time is augmented.
Q. What is contained in the centre of the radical moisture ?
A. It contains and conceals Sulphur, which is covered with a hard rind.
Q. What must be done to apply it to the Great Work?
A. It must be drawn, out of its bonds with consummate skill, and by the method of putrefaction.
Q. Does Nature, in her work in the mines, possess a menstruum which is adapted to the dissolution and liberation of
this sulphur?
A. No; because there is no local movement. Could Nature, unassisted, dissolve, putrefy, and purify the metallic
body, she would herself provide us with !he Physical Stone, which is Sulphur exalted and increased in virtue.
Q. Can you elucidate this doctrine by an example?
A. By an enlargement of the previous comparison of a fruit, or a seed, which, in the first place, is put into the earth
for its solution, and afterwards for its multiplication. Now, the Philosopher, who is in a position to discern what is
good seed, extracts it from its centre, consigns it to its proper earth, when it has been well cured and prepared, and
therein he rarefies it in such a manner that its prolific virtue is increased and indefinitely multiplied.
Q. In what does the whole secret of the seed consist ?
A. In the true knowledge of its proper earth.
Q. What do you understand by the seed in the work Of the Philosophers ?
A. I understand the interior heat, or the specific spirit, which is enclosed in the humid radical, which, in other words,
is the middle substance of living silver, the proper sperm of metals, which contains its own seed.
Q. How do you set free the sulphur from its bonds?
A. By putrefaction.
Q. What is the earth of minerals ?
A. It is their proper menstruum.
Q. What pains must be taken by the Philosopher to extract that part which he requires?
A. He must take great pains to eliminate the fetid vapours and impure sulphurs, after which the seed must be
injected.
Q. By what indication may the Artist be assured that he is in the right road at the beginning of his work?
A. When he finds that the dissolvent and the thing dissolved are converted into one form and one matter at the
period of dissolution.
Q. How many solutions do you count in the Philosophic Work?
A. There are three. The first solution is that which reduces the crude and metallic body into its elements of sulphur
and of living silver; the second is that of the physical body, and the third is the solution of the mineral earth.
Q. How is the metallic body reduced by the first solution into mercury, and then into sulphur?
A. By the secret artificial fire, which is the Burning Star.
Q. How is this operation performed?
A. By extracting from the subject, in the first place, the mercury or vapour of the elements, and, after purification,
by using it to liberate the sulphur from its bonds, by corruption, of which blackness is the indication.
Q. How is the second solution performed ?
A. When the physical body is resolved into the two substances previously mentioned, and has acquired the celestial
nature.
Q. What is the name which is applied by Philosophers to the Matter during this period?
A, It is called their Physical Chaos, and it is, in fact, the true First Matter, a name which can hardly be applied before
the conjunction of the male--which is sulphur--with the female--which is silver.
Q. To what does the third solution refer?
A. It is the humectation of the mineral earth and it is closely bound up with multiplication.
Q. What fire must be made use of in our work ?
A. That fire which is used by Nature.
Q. What is the potency of this fire?
A. It dissolves everything that is in the world, because it is the principle of all dissolution and corruption.
Q. Why is it also termed Mercury ?
A. Because it is in its nature aerial, and a most subtle vapour, which partakes at the same time of sulphur, whence it
has contracted some contamination.
Q. Where is this fire concealed ?
A. It is concealed in the subject of art.
Q. Who is it that is familiar with, and can produce, this fire?
A. It is known to the wise, who can both produce it and purify it.
Q. What is the essential potency and characteristic of this fire ?
A. It is excessively dry, and is continually in motion; it seeks only to disintegrate and to educe things from
potentiality into actuality; it is that, in a word, which coming upon solid places in mines, circulates in a vaporous
form upon the matter, and dissolves it.
Q. How may this fire be most easily distinguished?
A. By the sulphureous excrements in which it is enveloped, and by the saline environment with which it is clothed.
Q. What must be added to this fire so as to accentuate its capacity for incineration in the feminine species?
A. On account of its extreme dryness it requires to be moistened.
Q. How many philosophical fires do you enumerate ?
A. There are in all three--the natural, the unnatural, and the contra-natural.
Q. Explain to me these three species of fires.
A. The natural fire is the masculine fire, or the chief agent; the unnatural is the feminine, which is the dissolvent of
Nature, nourishing a white smoke, and assuming that form. This smoke is quickly dissipated, unless much care be
exercised, and it is almost incombustible, though by philosophical sublimation it becomes corporeal and resplendent.
The contra-natural fire is that which disintegrates compounds and has the power to unbind what has' been bound
very closely by Nature.
Q. Where is our matter to be found?
A. It is to be found everywhere, but it must specially be sought in metallic nature, where it is more easily available
than elsewhere.
Q. What kind must be preferred before all others ?
A. The most mature, the most appropriate, and the easiest; but care, before all things, must be taken that the metallic
essence shall be present, not only potentially but in actuality, and that there is, moreover, a metallic splendour.
Q. Is everything contained in this subject?
A. Yes; but Nature, at the same time, must be assisted, so that the work may be perfected and hastened, and this by
the means which are familiar to the higher grades of experiment.
Q. Is this subject exceedingly precious ?
A. It is vile, and originally is without native elegance; should anyone say that it is saleable, it is the species to which
they refer, but, fundamentally, it is not saleable, because it is useful in our work alone.
Q. What does our Matter contain?
A. It contains Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury.
Q. What operation is it most important to be able to perform?
A. The successive extraction of the Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury.
Q. How is that done ?
A. By sole and perfect sublimation.
Q. What is in the first place extracted ?
A. Mercury in the form of a white smoke.
Q. What follows?
A. Igneous water, or Sulphur.
Q. What then? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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