ON MERCURY.

...a red color, it will be turned red by it; if it flows toward salt, it will take on the flavor of salt, and so with the rest: For the water does not change the places, but the diversity of the places changes the water. In a similar way, from the center of the earth, the seed original: "semen" or sperm cast into the center by the four elements passes to various places, and according to the Nature of the place, the thing is Natured: In this context, to be "natured" (naturatur) means to take on the specific physical properties or essence of the environment where the thing is gestated or grown.; if it arrives at a place of pure earth and water, it becomes a pure thing. The seed and sperm of all things is one This reflects a core alchemical belief in "Prima Materia," the idea that a single fundamental substance underlies all physical matter., and yet it generates various things, as is apparent from the following example:

A man's seed is a noble seed, and was created at least for the generation of man; nevertheless, if a man misuses it (which is within his free will), a Monstrosity: The original Latin "abortus" refers here to an unnatural birth or a "miscarriage of nature" resulting from an improper vessel or seed. is born: For, if against the most heavy prohibitions of God a man were to couple with a cow, or another beast, the beast would easily conceive the man's seed, because Nature is but one; and then no Human would be born, but a beast and a monstrosity, since the seed did not find a place suitable for itself. By such inhumane and detestable mixing of men with beasts, various beasts would be produced similar The text cuts off mid-word "similibus"; the catchword "les" indicates the word continues on the next page as "similes," meaning "similar to men."