Preface.

)( 4

...achieves less, which likely stems mostly from the fact that almost everyone seeks temporal and fleeting wealth alongside long life, while putting the honor of God and love for one's neighbor last, even though it is said: Seek first the Kingdom of God etc. However, so that the gentle reader might find one thing or another for their pleasure in this address, I will set down here, in place of a formal preface, several useful curiosities In this context, "curiosities" refers to interesting or noteworthy pieces of scientific and philosophical information, in the hope that they will be well received and help one better understand this or that philosopher original: "Philosophum"; used here to mean an alchemist or student of nature.

Now, the remote matter of this masterpiece is the air; the near matter is an extracted sweet salt-water; the nearer matter is a snow-white earth prepared from the water; and finally, the proximate matter Alchemical texts often categorize materials by their proximity to the "Great Work": remote, near, and proximate is the Mercury original: "Mercurius"; referring to the philosophical principle of volatility and liquidity rather than just common quicksilver springing from the double-salts of this earth.

This matter is to be had everywhere for free, on water and land, throughout the whole world, yet it is richer and more abundant in one place than in others, and also more powerful. Its power is great even in its raw state, and indeed in every kingdom of nature—whether in the animal kingdom for medicine, in the mineral kingdom original: "Metallen-Reich"; the kingdom of metals or minerals for refinement, or in the vegetable kingdom for growth and refreshment, etc.

Curious minds will ponder this further, as time, because of my—