Inscrutable Chemico-Philosophical Harmonies

entirely by the power which it received from the male seed. Furthermore, once that has been completed by the male seed, the male seed no longer directs the action of generation, because the heart can subsequently generate all the other members by means of the seminal power which has been infused into it by the male seed, without the presence of the seed itself. Therefore, the male seed is separated from the heart (which is composed of the woman's blood) through its active power, only leaving behind for it the formal essence of the power infused into it. By means of this, the heart hereafter acts and perfects the other members and the whole substance of the human being; and thus the male seed does not enter into the substance of the fetus in such a way that the fetus is procreated out of the male seed, but out of the woman’s blood, into which the male seed has sent its active power, from which it is then separated, just as a craftsman The author uses the "craftsman" (artifex) analogy to explain that a cause (the seed or the sulfur) can produce an effect without being part of the final product. is separated from the work in which he has perfected his intention. Therefore, one must consider the male seed only as the agent, and the woman's blood as receiving such action and being acted upon by it, through which it receives or conceives the active power for the other members. And for this reason, Aristotle says in the book On Animals, chapter 19: original: "Vir dat formam & initium operationi, mulier v. corpus & materiam." This Aristotelian view of biology was the standard scientific model for centuries. "The male gives the form and the beginning of the operation, while the woman gives the body and the matter."

Thus it is similar in sulfur and quicksilver, so that quicksilver is the matter of metals, and sulfur is the male seed acting upon the quicksilver. For sulfur contains a hidden and concealed metallic power, by means of which and its natural heat, it digests In alchemy, "digestion" refers to the process of maturing a substance through gentle, steady heat, mimicking the internal heat of the earth or the womb. and generates or awakens in the quicksilver its own agile and subtle sulfur and power, which is the primary power and mother of gold. Then the external sulfur is separated—namely, the quicksilver with its own power,