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A DEFENSE OF

SILVER-MAKING AND

GOLD-MAKING.

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Upon hearing the title of this Apology A formal defense or justification of a position. or defense, many will immediately condemn this new subject of discussion as an Introduction original: "Exordiū" that is foreign to our profession. But even more will charge me with recklessness because I dare to clash with so powerful an adversary as Thomas Erastus A Swiss-German physician and theologian (1524–1583) famous for his fierce intellectual opposition to Paracelsian medicine and alchemy., a German Physician and most excellent Philosopher, in a matter that has been judged against so many times before. Furthermore, I contend to pronounce something certain and true in a matter so hidden original: "abstrusa", and hitherto unknown to many most distinguished men across many centuries. Many, as human temperaments vary, will judge this our Apology or defense of Silver-making original: "Argyropœiæ" and Gold-making original: "Chrysopœiæ" in various ways. To all of them, I wish it to be answered that I cannot be called away from this my undertaking by any of their judgments, as long as I believe it benefits the Commonwealth original: "Reipubl.", to which we all owe the greater part of our fortunes. Indeed, as human inclinations vary by nature, whenever I have had leisure, I have diligently read through the volumes of the ancients who have treated this subject. I have explored the nature of metals through my own examinations, and I have heard and consulted those who were thought to excel others in knowing the secrets of this art. I have attempted many things for many years now; and the same labor that great men have spent during their spare hours in unfolding books foreign to their own profession, I have at times spent in the study of this art during those same hours. Nor was there any other goal than the desire to acknowledge the truth, which every honorable man ought to embrace with all his strength.

The writings of the ancients are obscure.

I have found the writings of the ancients to be truly all enigmatic, and like the oracles of Apollo, handed down without any system of art, so that I have departed from reading them more uncertain than when I first approached them.

Geber.

Only Geber the Arab The Latinized name of Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721–815), an influential polymath considered a founder of early chemistry; his works were the "gold standard" for medieval alchemists. seems to have handed down this art with some order and method; but, as he himself confesses in the final chapter of his Summ of Perfection original: "summæ perfectionis," one of the most famous alchemical textbooks in the Latin West., where he spoke most openly, there he most concealed his art. He also mixed many sophistical and useless things with the true and useful, and more than...