The Child-Bed of the Philosopher's Stone

must understand the common ones: but rather their own, which
are much more powerful than the common ones: these are not
dead, nor separated from their natural minera original: "Minera"; the "ore" or womb of the earth where metals are believed to grow.,
and are all essentially and radically original: "radicaliter"; referring to the "root" or fundamental essence. in a single subject original: "Subjecto"; the raw material or vessel for the alchemical process.
alone contained, and hidden under a single mantle.
For aside from our Gold and Silver, which
are covered with the sphere of Saturn original: "Sphæra des Saturni"; in alchemy, Saturn represents lead, darkness, or the heavy outer shell of matter that hides the inner spirit., everything
else is useless, says the Cosmopolite A famous 17th-century alchemist, likely Michael Sendivogius, whose writings were highly influential.. Do you
not yet see what this subtle genius meaning the spirit or intellect of the author. teaches you in his
treatise on mercury, advising you
against seeking this living root in common metallic
bodies, when he introduces common quicksilver
speaking with the alchemist, where he lets
him say expressly: "It is in vain that you
seek me and visit me in my old age, when you
could not recognize me in my youth." What
he says to you regarding common mercury,
he says also of all other metals, and of all mixed
bodies that are in the three kingdoms of na-
ture; for if common mercury, which is the ve-
ry youngest and the least cooked among all metals,
is nonetheless already too old to extract this
root of life from it, how much less useful will
the others then be, considering that they are
much older and much riper than it, and that
nature has applied much longer time to their cook-
ing, and brought them to a much greater ripeness,
and thus they are much further removed from the
root that brought them forth? Take the original
radical beginning in its beginning, and its
original source, and