Collection of Alchemical Treatises

And if the said Mercury finds a red, unctuous, and fatty earth, with a great quantity of Sulfur, the said Mercury is converted into Venus, which is copper.

And if the said Mercury finds a dry and black earth, full of sulfur, iron is formed; and this is clearly seen, because iron always burns in the fire, and although the said metals have these imperfections, neither their sulfurs nor the fire can burn the first mercurial Substance, because of its perfect homogeneity.

And therefore, through our art which God has given us, [we have] the knowledge by His grace to clean and purify them, which would be of the first, second, and third order of philosophy, as shall be more fully declared according to the regime of natural experience.

At present we shall leave aside all the superfluities and parables of the philosophers, and we shall begin the true practice and experience of knowing the virtue of metals, and of bringing and placing the said metals, in order to make them pass from potentiality into act, as well of the first, second, and third order, as some modern philosophers have written, having charity recommended within them. In which orders there are seven operations. The first is Calcination. The second are the menstruals and dissolutive waters made for the preservation of the metallic species. The third is dissolution. The fourth is putrefaction. The fifth, purification. The sixth, composition and fixation. The seventh, inceration and the ultimate degree for reducing common mercury and the other imperfect metals into true gold or silver, better than that from the mines, according to the compositions made, as shall hereafter be declared in order.