PREFACE

...fantastical proofs of conclusions, and therefore they do not tolerate them; instead, they show that all other sciences enter vividly into the intellect. From this, we subsequently understand through nature the inner essence of what a thing is and what kind of thing it is. Because through such science, the intellect stands stripped of the superfluities and errors that usually remove it from the truth, due to the presumptions and prejudices believed in their conclusions. For this reason, our people original: "nostri," referring to the practitioners of this chemical philosophy. have directed themselves toward entering, through any science, into every experience by means of art, according to the course of nature, in its UNIVOCAL PRINCIPLES Univocal Principles: rules or foundations that have one single, clear meaning and application across all of nature, as opposed to ambiguous theories..

For Spagyria Spagyria: the alchemical art of separating and recombining substances to extract their purest medicinal essences; the precursor to modern chemistry. alone is the mirror of true understanding; it allows one to touch and see their truths in a clear light. And so the Emerald Tablet original: "tabula smaragdina." A legendary, brief foundational text of alchemy attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, famously teaching the principle "as above, so below." holds: "By this kind of demonstration, all obscurity shall flee from you," etc.

a) From Book 1 of On Regimen (De Dieta).

Hippocrates points to the foundations of this most ancient art in the beginning of the book cited above (a),