THE PREFACE

OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION.

ADDRESSED TO THE KIND READER. The original Latin "candido lectori" refers to an "honest" or "fair-minded" reader, one who approaches the text without prejudice.

IT would be unjust to doubt, most gentle reader, that of all the arts invented for the use of life by the reason of man, that of Alchemy Alchemy: The ancient branch of natural philosophy that sought to purify or perfect materials, most famously by turning base metals into gold or creating a universal medicine. is the most noble and glorious. For all philosophers exclaim, as it were, with one voice, albeit in many languages, that this art is not only true, but (after the Divine Law Divine Law: The religious and moral codes through which, according to the author, the soul is saved. by which our souls are saved) the best and most magnificent gift bestowed upon man by God; and that it should therefore be investigated with all zeal and with the greatest pains. But as good wine needs no praise, so neither does this art require a herald; for its truth is undoubted, and its utility in human life universally acknowledged, and shewn forth, not only in the Art of Medicine, in Pharmacy, and many other sciences, but more especially in the Art of Transmuting Metals Transmutation: The alchemical process of changing one metal into another, specifically "base" metals like lead into "noble" metals like gold., is so clearly and perspicuously demonstrated, that it in no way requires to be adorned by the splendour of oratory, or tricked out with the device of language. I will not enlarge upon the blessing which the elaboration of minerals and metals has bestowed upon our race. I merely point it out, but refrain from discussing it at length. Different men devote themselves to the study of this science from different motives. The philosopher is impelled by the love of truth, and the thirst after wisdom. He delights in knowledge for its own sake. He