Chemical Works

arrived. What great benefit I have gained from this reading is unnecessary to report here; however, I must say with truth that I now, praise God, know well how to distinguish a true philosopher original: Philosophum. In this context, a "true philosopher" refers to a genuine alchemist seeking natural and spiritual truths, as opposed to a "sophist" or fraud. from a sophist and a deceiver. Of the latter, no small number present themselves everywhere, offering and selling their "processes" for a great sum of money. One claims to prepare his work from talc original: Talco, another from mercury original: Mercurio, or even from sulfur original: Sulphure, arsenic original: Arsenico, antimony original: Antimonio, vitriol original: Vitriolo, etc. A third works with urine original: Urina, perhaps because he may have read these words in Morienus Morienus was a legendary 7th-century alchemist and hermit, famous for being the teacher of the Umayyad prince Khalid ibn Yazid. which he said to King Calid:

this thing is drawn out from you, of whose mineral source original: minera you also are, for they find it within you, etc.

Another claims it is a precious matter original: Materia from which the Universal The "Universal" refers to the Universal Medicine or the Philosopher’s Stone, which was believed to be a panacea for all diseases and a catalyst for transmuting base metals into gold. of the philosophers must be prepared; he therefore presents himself to great lords to reveal the art to them, for he complains that he does not have the funds original: Sumptus for the completion of the work—