HOW METALS ARE GENERATED

in the bowels of the earth.

Metals are produced in this way: after the four Elements have cast their virtues into the center of the earth, the Archaeus Archaeus: derived from the Greek word for "ancient" or "beginning," this refers to the "inner artisan" or vital force that alchemists believed governed the growth of minerals and living things.—through the heat of perpetual motion—distills and sublimates these virtues toward the surface of the earth. For the earth is porous, and the "wind" In alchemical theory, "wind" often represents the volatile, gaseous state of matter before it condenses. trickling through these pores of the earth is resolved into water, from which all things are born.

Therefore, let the sons of learning original: "doctrinæ filij." A common term for students of alchemy or those initiated into the hermetic mysteries. know that the seed of metals is no different from the seed of all things—namely, a moist vapor. For this reason, practitioners of the art seek in vain to reduce metals back into their "First Matter" materia prima: the primordial, formless substance from which all things were thought to be created., because that matter is nothing but a vapor.

The Philosophers did not mean such a "First Matter" in their writings, but rather only the "Second Matter," as Bernard of Treviso original: "Bernardus Trevisanus." A renowned 15th-century alchemist who spent his life and fortune seeking the Philosopher's Stone. argues most excellently—though perhaps not so clearly, because he speaks of the four Elements. Nevertheless, he [says]...