APOLOGIA

...[silver-making] can be discovered, however clearly and truly it is committed to writing, unless it is handled by the hands of one most skilled and highly experienced in the principles of the art. The sum of this treatise. Yet speculation alone is most pleasant, and refreshes minds weighed down by more serious studies. Now therefore, all you who are the keenest searchers of secrets and the greatest lovers of truth, come hither; for I shall lay open for you things worthy of admiration, which have never been clearly and truly committed to writing by anyone, and I shall illustrate them with physical definitions, divisions, and demonstrations, as much as can be done. The age of the author. In a single moment you will grasp whatever I—now an old man of sixty years—have been able to understand through many meditations and experiments since nearly thirty-five years ago, when leisure allowed, so that I might investigate whether this art truly exists. The method of procedure is not treated here. However, I shall remain silent regarding the method of procedure The author refers to the "Praxis" or the specific laboratory steps of the "Great Work," which alchemists often kept secret, nor shall I touch upon it except generally, as far as the necessity of the question to be proved—whether the art exists—incumbents upon me.

The Proposition. Erastus Thomas Erastus (1524–1583), a Swiss-German physician and theologian famous for his fierce opposition to Paracelsus and alchemy, a German by nation and a Professor in the school of Heidelberg, published a book to which he gave the title, On the New Medicine of Paracelsus, Part One original: "De medicina nova Paracelsi, Pars prima". That book was printed in Basel by Peter Perna in the year of our Lord 1572. When I had read through this book in my successive spare hours, I saw toward the end this question treated by Erastus: Whether from quicksilver original: "argento vivo," literally "living silver," the common name for mercury or more ignoble metals transmuted, true, legitimate, natural, and pure gold or silver can be made by art. At length, with many and most powerful arguments, and from the authority of those who excel in judgment and erudition, he constantly denies that it can be done. I, however, constantly affirm that from silver, lead, tin, copper, iron, and also from quicksilver, gold can be made; and from these latter five, true, legitimate, natural, and pure silver can be made, by natural causes with art acting as the minister. These are the two opinions, diametrically opposed. I undertake the defense of the latter opinion; and that is exactly what I shall endeavor to provide in this Apology. Indeed, if anyone has ever attacked this art with the most powerful arguments, Erastus alone is the greatest philosopher of them all and possessed of consummate erudition. But the victory will be all the more distinguished if I prevail in this part of philosophy, which I am confident I can achieve. And although for the proof of the proposed question—namely, that Silver-making original: "Argyropœiam" and Gold-making original: "Chryſopœiam" are a true art—experience alone would suffice, which holds the place of a demonstration, nevertheless, so that the matter may be clearer and more manifest, I have deemed it necessary to dig deeper.