Mineral Stone, or the Highest Medicine

...[corrosives]. You blessed of the LORD, let yourselves be anointed with oil, and refreshed with water, and embalm your bodies so that they do not rot, smell foul, or stink; for the heavenly water is the beginning, and the oil is the middle—which accordingly does not burn, because it has been made from a spiritual sulfur original: "Schwebel"; an archaic spelling of Schwefel, referring to the alchemical principle of Sulfur—and the salt-balsam is physical, which is united with the water through the oil. I will provide an extensive account of this again hereafter, when I write something of them and intend to speak.

And that I may further explain what kind of essence, matter original: "Materia", and form the Spirit of Mercury original: "Spiritus Mercurii" is, I say that its essence is blessed, its matter is spiritual, and its form is earthly; yet this must be understood through something incomprehensible. These are indeed sharp words and speech, and many will think: your proposition is all the same, and these are strange effusions that provoke such wondrous thoughts. That is true; they are strange, and they will in turn require strange people who understand such speech. This is not a writing for peasants on how they should grease a wagon, nor is it a speech for those who have no knowledge of the Art original: "Kunst"; here referring specifically to the "Great Art" of alchemy, even if they were ever so learned as they imagine themselves to be. But I consider him alone to be learned who, next to God's Word, establishes earthly things—which must be judged by reason original: "vernunfft"—through true knowledge, and