The Works of Geber (1678) (1678) - Page 21

What shall be (as is mentioned hereafter) sufficiently prepared, will be fit to make the White or great Red Elixir.

CHAP. II.

Of the Philosophers' Stone, that it

is only one, for the White, and for

the Red, and from what things it is

extracted. And of the possibility

and way of perfection.

We find modern artists describe to us only one Stone, both for the White and for the Red; which we grant to be true: for in every Elixir that is prepared, White or Red, there is no other thing than Argentvive Quicksilver or Mercury and Sulphur, of which one cannot act, nor exist, without the other. Therefore it is called by Philosophers one Stone, although it is extracted from many bodies or things. For it would be a foolish and vain thing to think to extract it from a thing in which it is not, as some infatuated men have imagined; for it never was the intention of Philosophers; yet they speak many things by similitude analogy or likeness. And because all metallic bodies are compounded of Argentvive and Sulphur, pure or impure, by accident,