Theatrum Chemicum Volumen Secundum

SILVER-MAKING AND GOLD-MAKING

The definition of Silver-making & Gold-making.

Silver-making original: "Argyropœia" and Gold-making original: "Chrysopœia" is the art which teaches how to advance matter that is naturally very close to gold and silver, by means of natural efficient causes, into the form of silver or gold. And so that the definition may be explained, I said it is an "art" that moves natural causes; this is to distinguish it from "nature" itself, which, by its own power alone and without the help of any other, produces silver and gold from its own principles and causes. I also said that the matter is moved by natural causes, so that, insofar as the matter and the efficient causes are considered, the method of making silver and gold depends on nature. However, insofar as the artist submits nature’s own proper matter to it so that it may act, this management is proper to the art. This is how many arts are defined, such as Agriculture and Medicine; their effects are natural, but because they provide specific instructions that are proper and peculiar to the art, they are said to "produce" these effects.

By an analogy.

Thus, one who provides eggs to a hen so that she may sit on them until they are hatched, or who fosters them by mimicking the heat of the hen so that chicks are generated, is said to "produce" the chicks—even though this birth depends on the natural power implanted in the eggs. In the same way, the practitioners of Silver-making and Gold-making are said to "produce" silver and gold, while they, like servants, submit the proximate matter The "proximate matter" refers to the starting substance that is chemically closest to the desired metal and provide the instructions by which the same are made by a natural efficient cause.

What Art is.

Thus Aristotle The author refers to the Aristotelian idea of the "four causes," specifically the efficient cause as the source of change established that "art" is certainly that from which all movement ultimately proceeds. I added in the definition that it is necessary for the "proximate matter" to be submitted to the gold and silver, because everything cannot be made from any matter indiscriminately. Rather, it must be made
What the matter is.

from that matter alone which is ready to take on a certain form from an efficient cause without any intermediate step; this will become more manifest in the progress of this work. Finally, and in the last place, it was added that this proximate matter must be "advanced into the form of silver and gold," so it may be understood that the very same silver and the very same gold are made by nature—with Art as its servant—as are produced by nature alone.

The division of Silver-making and Gold-making.

From this definition, it seems to me that this art of Silver-making and Gold-making should be divided into three parts.
Part I: Knowledge of the nature of metals.

The first of these will be the knowledge of the nature of metals, just as nature itself has brought them forth into the light of its own accord. For since art, serving nature, strives to produce the very same silver and gold that nature produces, it could in no way achieve this if the nature of metals were unknown—especially that of silver and gold—so that it might produce exactly the same things.
Part II: Knowledge of the proximate matter and the efficient cause.

The second part will be the knowledge of the proximate matter of silver and gold, and of the efficient cause that moves it toward the form of silver and gold