Part 3

Wee have spoken of the first matter of things, and how things are produced by Nature without seed, that is, how Nature receives matter from the Elements, out of which she makes seed: But now we intend to treat of the seed it selfe, and things generated of seed. For every thing that hath seed is multiplyed in it, but without the help of Nature it is not done: for the seed is nothing else but the air congealed in some body: or it is a moist vapour; and unlesse this be resolved by a warm vapour, it is of no use. Let therefore the searchers of the Art understand what Seed is, lest they seek after a thing that is not: and let them know that that is threefold, which is brought forth by the foure Elements. The first is Minerall, and is that which we now speak of; the second is Vegetable; the third Animall. The Minerall seed is known by Philosophers alone: the Vegetable is common, and vulgar, as we may see in fruits: the Animall is known by imagination. The Vegetable doth shew to us, how Nature made it of the four Elements. For wee must know that the winter is the cause of putrefaction, seeing it congeals the Vitall spirits in trees; and when those by the heat of the Sun (in which there is a magnetick vertue, attractive of al manner of moisture) are resolved; then the heat of nature, stirred up by motion drives, or forceth the subtill Vapour of the water to the circumference, and this vapour openeth the pores of the tree, and makes drops distill, alwaies separating the pure from the impure. Yet the pure sometimes goeth before the impure; the pure stayes, and is congealed into flowers, the impure goes into leaves, the grosse, and thick into the bark: the bark of the tree remains fast, and firm, the leaves fall with cold, or heat, when the pores thereof are stopt: the flowers in congealing receive their colour according to the heat whereby the colour is made, and bring with them fruit, and seed (as an Apple, in which there is sperm out of which a tree is not brought forth; but in the inside of that sperme is a seed or kernell, out of which even without the sperm is brought forth a tree, for multiplication is not in the sperm, but in the seed.) So wee see with our eyes, that Nature creates a seed out of the four Elements, lest wee should labour in vain about it; for what is created already need not a Creator. Let this by way of example bee sufficient for the advertisement of the Reader; but now I return to my purpose concerning the Mineralls. Nature creates the Mineral seed, or the seed of Metalls in the bowels of the earth: wherefore it is not beleeved that there is any such seed _in rerum naturâ_, because it is invisible. But it is no wonder if ignorant men doubt of it, seeing they cannot perceive that which is before their eys, much less that which is hid from their eyes: but it is most true that that which is superiour, is but as that which is inferior, and so on the contrary. Also that which is brought forth above is brought forth of the same fountaine, as that beneath in the bowells of the earth. And what prerogative should Vegetables have before Metalls, that God should put a seed into them, and without cause withhold it from these? Are not Metalls of as much esteem with God as Trees? Let this be granted for a truth, that nothing grows without seed: for where there is no seed, the thing is dead. It is necessary therefore that four Elements should make the seed of Metalls, or bring them forth without a seed: if they are produced without seed, then they cannot be perfect; seeing every thing without seed is imperfect, by the rule of composition: hee which gives no credit to this undoubted truth, is not worthy to search into the secrets of nature; for there is nothing made in the world, that is destitute of seed. The seed of Metalls is truely, and really put into them: and the generation of it is thus. The foure Elements in the first operation of Nature doe by the help of the Archeus of Nature distill into the center of the earth a ponderous, or heavy Vapour of water, which is the seed of Metalls, and is called Mercury by reason of its fluxibility, and its conjunction with every thing, not for its essence; and for its internall heat it is likened to Sulphur, and after congealation becomes to be the radicall moisture. And although the body of Metalls be procreated of Mercury (which is to bee understood of the Mercury of Philosophers) yet they are not bee hearkned to, that think the vulgar Mercury is the seed of Metalls, and so take the body in stead of the seed, not considering that the vulgar Mercury spoken of hath its own seed in it self. The errors, and mistakes of all these men will be made apparent by the following example. It is manifest that men have seed, in which they are multiplyed: the body of man is Mercury; but the seed is hid in the body, and in comparison to the body is but little, and light: he therefore that will beget a man, let him not take Mercury, which is the body, but the seed, which is the congealed Vapour of water. So in the regeneration of Metalls, the vulgar Chymists goe preposterously to work: They dissolve Metallick bodies, whether it be Mercury, or Gold, or Lead, or Silver, and corrode them with sharp waters, and other Heterogeneous things not requisite to the true Art, and afterward joine them together again, not knowing that a man is not generated of a mans body cut to pieces, because by this means the body is marred, and the seed before-hand is destroyed. Every thing is multiplyed in Male and Female, as I have already mentioned in the Treatise of the twofold Matter: The division of the sexes causeth, or produceth nothing, but a due joining of them together, brings forth a new forme: the seeds therefore, or spermes, not bodies are to bee taken. Take therefore a living Male, and a living Female; joine these together, that betwixt them there may be conceived a sperm for the bringing forth of fruit after its kind: There is no man living can beleeve that he can make the first matter: The first matter of Man is earth, and no man can of that make a man; only God knows how to doe this; but of the second matter, which is already made, if it be put into its due place, may easily by the operation of Nature be generated a thing of that species, or kind, which the seed was of. The Artist here need doe nothing, onely to separate the thin from the thick, and to put it into its due vessell. For this is to be considered, that as a thing is begun, so it ends: Of one are made two, of two one, and then you have done. There is one God; of this one God the Son is begotten: One produceth two, two have produced one holy Spirit proceeding from both: so the world is made, and so shall be the end thereof. Consider the four former points most exactly: thou hast in them the Father, the Father and the Son, and lastly the holy Spirit: thou hast the four Elements: thou hast four great Lights, two Celestiall, and two Centrall: This is all that is, hath been, or shall be, that is made plain by this forenamed similitude. If I might lay down all the mysteries that might be raised from hence, they would amount to a great volume. I return to my purpose, and I tell thee true, my son! one is not made of one naturally, for thus to doe is proper to God alone: let it suffice thee that thou art able out of two to make one, which wil be profitable to thee. Know therefore that the sperm doth multiply the second matter, and not the first: for the first matter of all things is not seen, but is hid either in nature, or in the Elements; but the second matter sometimes appeares to the sons of wisdome.

_THE SEVENTH TREATISE._

_Of the vertue of the second matter._

But that thou maist the more easily conceive what this second matter is, I will describe the vertues of it, by which thou maist know it. And first of all know, that Nature is divided into three Kingdoms; two of them are such that either of them can subsist of it self, if the other two were not; there is the Minerall, Vegetable, and Animall Kingdom. The Minerall can subsist of it self, although there were no man in the world, nor tree, or herb. The Vegetable likewise, although there were no Metall, nor Animall, can stand by it self: these two are of one made by one: But the third hath life from the other two which wee have mentioned, without which it could not subsist, and is more noble and excellent then those two, as also it is the last of the three, and rules over the other: because alwaies vertue, or excellency ends in a third thing, and is multiplyed in the second. Dost thou see in the Vegetable Kingdom? The first matter is an herb, or a tree, which thou knowest not how to make, Nature alone makes it: In this Kingdom the second matter is Seed, which thou seest, in this the hearb, or the tree is multiplyed. In the Animall Kingdome the first matter is a beast, or a man, which thou knowest not how to make; but the second matter or the sperm, in which they are multiplyed, thou knowest. In the Minerall thou knowest not how to make a Metall, and if thou braggest that thou canst, thou art a foole, and a lyar, Nature makes that, and although thou shouldst have the first matter, according to the Philosophers, yet it would bee impossible for thee to multiply that Centrall salt without Gold: Now the seed of Metalls is known only to the sons of Art. In Vegetables the seed appears outwardly; the reins of its digestion is warm aire. In Animalls the seed appears inwardly, and outwardly; the reins of its digestion are the reins of a Male. Water in Mineralls is the seed in the Center of their heart, and is their life: the reins of its digestion is fire. The receptacle of the Vegetable seed is the earth: the receptacle of the seed Animal is the womb of the female: the receptacle of water, which is the Minerall seed, is aire. And those are the receptacles of seeds, which are the congealations of their bodies: that is their digestion, which is their solution: that is their putrefaction which is their destruction. The vertue of every seed is to join it self to every thing in its own Kingdome, because it is subtill, and is nothing else but aire, which by fatnesse is congealed in water: It is known thus, because it doth not mixe it self naturally to any thing out of its own Kingdome: it is not dissolved, but congealed, because it doth not need dissolution, but congealation. It is necessary therefore that the pores of the body be opened, that the sperme may be sent forth, in whose Center the seed lyes, which is aire: that when it comes into its due matrix, is congealed, and congeals what it finds pure, or impure mixed with what is pure. As long as the seed is in the body, the body lives, when it is all consumed the body dies; also all bodies after the emission of seed are weakned: experience likewise testifies that men which give themselves over too much to venery become feeble, as trees, that bear too much fruit, become afterwards barren. The seed therefore, as oftentimes hath been repeated, is a thing invisible; but the sperme is visible, and is almost a living soule; it is not found in things that are dead: It is drawn forth two wayes, pleasantly, and by force: But because wee are in this place to treat of the vertue of it onely, I say that nothing is made without seed: all things are made by vertue of seed: and let the sons of Art know, that seed is in vain sought for in trees that are cut off, or cut down, because it is found in them only that are green.

_THE EIGHTH TREATISE._

_How by Art Nature works in Seed._

All seed is nothing worth of it self, if it be not either by Art, or Nature put into its proper matrix. And although seed be of it self more noble then every creature, yet the matrix is the life of it, & makes the sperm, or corn to putrefie, and causeth a congealation of the pure point, and also by the heat of its body nourisheth it, and makes it grow: and this is done in all the foresaid Kingdomes of Nature; and is done naturally by months, years, and ages. But that is a witty Art, that can shorten any thing in the Minerall, and Vegetable Kingdome, but not in the Animall: in the Minerall Kingdome it perfects that, which Nature could not, by reason of the crude air, which with its vehemency filled the pores of every body; not onely in the bowells, but also in the superficies of the earth. As I have already said in the foregoing Chapters. But that this may bee the more easily understood, I will adde hereunto, that the Elements striving amongst themselves send forth their seed into the Center of the earth, as into their reins; but the Center by help of motion sends it into its Matrix. Now the Matrixes are innumerable, as many Matrixes, as places, one purer then other, and so almost _in infinitum_. Know therefore, that a pure Matrix will afford a pure conception in its own likenesse: As for example, in Animalls there are Matrixes of Women, Cowes, Mares, Bitches, and the like. So in the Minerall, and Vegetable Kingdomes, there are Metalls, Stones, Salts; for the Salts in these two Kingdomes are to bee considered of, as also their places, according to more or lesse.

_THE NINTH TREATISE._

_Of the Commixtion of Metalls, or the drawing forth their seed._

We have spoken of Nature, of Art, of the Body, of Sperm, and of Seed, now let us descend to Praxis, _viz._ how Metalls ought to be mixed together, and what their correspondency, or agreement is one with another. Know therefore that a Woman doth not vary from a Man; both are bred of the same Seed, and in one Matrix, there was nothing besides digestion, and that the Matrix had in it purer bloud, and salt: so Silver is made of the same Seed as Gold is, and in the same Matrix; but the Matrix had more water in it then digested blood, according to the season of the Moon in the heavens. But that thou maist the more easily imagine with thy self how Metalls couple together, that their Seed may be sent forth, and received; behold and see the heavens, and the spheres of the Planets: thou seest that _Saturne_ is placed the uppermost, or highest, next to that _Iupiter_, then _Mars_, then _Sol_, or the Sun, then _Venus_, then _Mercury_, and last of all _Luna_, or the Moon. Consider also that the vertues of the Planets doe not ascend, but descend: Experience teacheth as much, _viz._ that of _Venus_, or Copper is not made _Mars_, or Iron, but of _Mars_ is made _Venus_, as being an inferiour sphere: So also _Iupiter_, or Tin is easily changed into _Mercury_ or Quicksilver, because _Iupiter_ is the second from the firmament, and _Mercury_ the second from the earth: _Saturne_ is the first from the heavens, and _Luna_ the first from the earth: _Sol_ mixeth it self with all, but is never bettered by its inferiors. Now know that there is a great agreement betwixt _Saturne_, or Lead, and _Luna_, or Silver, in midst of which the Sun is placed: as also betwixt _Iupiter_ and _Mercury_, in midst of which _Sol_ is also placed: and in the same manner betwixt _Mars_ and _Venus_, which also have _Sol_ placed in the midst of them. Chymists know how to change Iron into Copper without Gold: they know also to make Quicksilver out of Tin: and there are some that make Silver out of Lead: But if they knew by these mutations to give or minister to them the nature of Gold, they would certainly find out a thing more pretious then any treasure. Wherefore I say we must not bee ignorant what Metalls are to be joined to each other, whose nature is agreable one to the others. Moreover there is granted to us one Metall, which hath a power to consume the rest, for it is almost as their water, & mother: yet there is one thing, and that alone, the radicall moisture, _viz._ of the Sunne, and Moon that withstands it, and is bettered by it; but that I may disclose it to you, it is called Chalybs, or Steel. If Gold couples eleven times with it, it sends forth its seed, and is debilitated almost unto death; the Chalybs conceives, and bears a son, more excellent then his father: then when the Seed of that which is now brought forth is put into its own Matrix, it purifies it, and makes it a thousand times more fit, and apt to bring forth the best, and most excellent fruits. There is another Chalybs, which is like to this, created by it selfe of Nature, which knows how to draw forth by vertue of the sun beams (through a wonderfull power, and vertue) that which so many men have sought after, and is the beginning of our work.

_THE TENTH TREATISE._

_Of the Supernaturall Generation of the Son of the Sun._

Wee have treated of things, which Nature makes, and which God hath made; that the Searchers of Art might the more easily understand the possibility of Nature. But to delay no longer, I will now enter upon the Manner, and Art how to make the Philosophers stone. The Philosophers stone, or tincture is nothing else, but Gold digested to the highest degree: For vulgar Gold is like an herb without seed, when it is ripe it brings forth seed; so Gold when it is ripe yeelds seed, or tincture. But, will some ask, Why doth not Gold, or any other Metall bring forth seed? the reason given is this, because it cannot bee ripe, by reason of the crudity of the air, it hath not sufficient heat, and it happens, that in some places there is found pure Gold, which nature would have perfected, but was hindred by the crude aire. As for example, wee see that Orenge trees in _Polonia_ doe indeed flourish as other trees; in _Italie_, and elsewhere, where their naturall soil is, they yeeld, and bring forth fruit, because they have sufficient heat; but in these cold places they doe otherwise, for when they begin to ripen, they are at a stand, because they are oppressed with cold; and so in these places we never have their fruit naturally: but if at any time Nature be sweetly, and wittily helped, then Art may perfect that, which Nature could not. The same happens in Metalls: Gold may yeeld fruit, and seed, in which it multiplyes it self by the industry of the skilfull Artificer, who knows how to exalt Nature, but if he will attempt to do it without Nature, he will be mistaken. For not only in this art, but also in every thing else, we can doe nothing but help Nature; and this by no other medium then fire, or heat. But seeing this cannot be done, since in a congealed Metallick body there appear no spirits; it is necessary that the body be loosed, or dissolved, and the pores thereof opened, whereby Nature may work. But what that dissolution ought to be, here I would have the Reader take notice, that there is a twofold dissolution, although there be many other dissolutions, but to little purpose; there is onely one that is truely naturall, the other is violent, under which all the rest are comprehended. The naturall is this, that the pores of the body bee opened in our water, whereby the seed, that is digested, may bee sent forth, and put into its proper Matrix: Now our water is heavenly, not wetting the hands, not vulgar, but almost rain water: The body is gold, which yeelds seed; our Lune or Silver, (not common Silver) is that which receives the seed of the gold: afterwards it is governed by our continual fire, for seven months, and sometimes ten, untill our water consume three, and leave one; and that _in duplo_, or a double. Then it is nourished with the milk of the earth, or the fatnesse thereof, which is bred in the bowells of the earth, and is governed, or preserved from putrefaction by the salt of Nature. And thus the infant of the second generation is generated. Now let us passe from the Theorie to the Praxis.

_THE ELEVENTH TREATISE._

_Of the Praxis, and making of the Stone, or Tincture by Art._

Through all these foregoing Chapters, our discourse of things hath been scattered by way of examples, that the Praxis might be the more easily understood, which must be done by imitating Nature after this manner——