An ornamental woodcut headpiece sits at the top of the page, featuring symmetrical scrolls, floral motifs, and leaves. Below the titles, the main body of text begins with a large, square decorative woodcut initial 'M', filled with intricate foliage patterns.

FIRST TREATISE.

ON NATURE

WHAT IT MAY BE,

and what kind of seekers

it ought to have.

Many wise and most learned men, many centuries ago—indeed, as Hermes original: "Hermete teste." Referring to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Hellenistic figure to whom many foundational alchemical texts were attributed. testifies, even before the flood—wrote many things concerning the preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone original: "lapide Philosophorum." The legendary substance said to be capable of transmuting base metals into gold and acting as a universal medicine., and have left us so many writings that unless Nature worked wonders before our eyes every day, hardly anyone would now believe Nature to be real. This is because in former ages there were not so many "inventors" of things original: "inuentores rerum." The author implies that ancient seekers were fewer but perhaps more genuine than the modern practitioners who invent complex, artificial theories.. Nor did our predecessors consider anything other than Nature herself, and the possibility of Nature possibilitas Naturæ: the inherent potential within the natural world to undergo change or perfection without artificial interference.. And although they remained only in the simple path of Nature, they nevertheless found those things which we now, in so many thi-