Collection of Alchemical Treatises

of three months and more, for having made this water, the said Geber is [found] true; and again St. Gratian, in his Book of Philosophical Sentences, confirms that the said white and red Lapis could be made in twenty-four days. And Geber and St. Gratian say in agreement that in the space of a quarter of an hour, one calcines, subtilizes, dissolves, and putrefies oneself, and the true conjunction is made. Aristotle knew this perfection when he said: one single vessel, one single furnace, one single matter, one single regimen, which is the work of women and the play of small children. "One single matter" is understood to mean that Sol, Luna, and Mercury put together make neither more nor less than three drops of water put together—a natural and inseparable union. Raymond Lully knew it, and Arnald of Villanova when he says in his Rosary that he had never seen a man who

wrought in the proper matter as did his master St. Thomas Aquinas. Brother Elias, who was General in the time of St. Francis, possessed it; he says: Sol, Luna, and Mercury, knead it into a good paste. And all those who have had this secret received it from Hermes when he says: "You blessed ones, dissolve first the two bodies into water, you who demand gold and silver, and they shall give them to you at your pleasure." And to whom God gives the grace to have the secret of the said Water, he shall know all the books composed by the ancient and modern philosophers; who had it and who had it not. And even in the present time, those who are on the path, or in error, are known. And to this end, I shall set down in writing the various menstrua, so that Your Royal Majesty may see and be able to know the