Theatrum Chemicum Volumen Secundum

DEFENSE

...many expected a metamorphosis original: "metamorphofin," referring here to the physical transformation of base metals into gold from his books, yet they experienced it only in themselves: so much so that they turned from rich men into paupers, and from honorable men they came to be held as shameful. I see that this same thing has happened to those who follow the writings of others that are supported by no reason, but merely passed down from hand to hand; through such experience, these men are seen to become miserable and beggars. When I weighed all these things in my mind, I thought I would bring some fruit to the Commonwealth original: "Reip." or "Res publica," meaning the state or the common good

The Author’s purpose.

if I were to bring to light how truly this Art could subsist, doing so openly and with a certain method, having exploded all ambiguities, as far as the powers of the mind allow. For in this way, it will happen that those who are held in so hidden a matter more by a zeal for acknowledging the truth than a desire for acquiring wealth will perhaps not regret having read these pages. Indeed, those who have wasted oil and labor A classical idiom for wasting time and effort on a fruitless task until now might finally amend their own errors and those of their authors, and begin to be wise. Furthermore, those who have not yet tasted anything of these matters, if they should happen to apply themselves to study, might enter the right path and never be able to wander thereafter. All, moreover, who read and understand these things, shall be safe from the tricks and frauds of impostors and sophists original: "sophistarum," used here to mean deceptive charlatans or people who use clever but false arguments. What, I ask, is more useful or more human than to show the right way to those traveling a path they do not know, and to call them back to the same if they should happen to wander? Nor can anyone, except by injury, condemn this my project as if it were alien to that art which I profess i.e., the law. For questions often arise in forensic judgments which seem alien to the responses of legal experts original: "Iureconfultorum", such as about the medical art, and about very many other arts, which nevertheless those who plead cases should be ashamed to be ignorant of; for this reason, they are often compelled to consult experts of the art before they can defend their clients.

An Example.

I remember a few years ago in our court at Nevers original: "Niuernenfi," a city in central France where the author practiced law, while I was still pleading cases, that this very question was handled. A certain citizen of this city, intending to buy a chain from someone whom he did not then know was an impostor, and which the seller asserted was gold, had commanded the same to be proven by the test of a touchstone original: "lapis lydij," the Lydian stone used to test the purity of precious metals by a goldsmith original: "fabro aurario". That test having been immediately performed in the presence of the buyer, the metalworker reported that the chain was golden and consisted of pure gold. Relying on this confidence, the citizen bought the chain as if it consisted of pure gold. A short time later, when one link original: "fibula," a clasp or buckle of the same chain was broken, it was discovered to be only silver inside, but golden on the outside and on the surface. The buyer, the fraud having been immediately recognized, contended against the goldsmith for damages and interest original: "damnis & intereffe," a legal term for compensation, because he had been deceived by the goldsmith's affirmation...