The Microcosmic Animal Stone, or the Supreme Medicine from the Little World of the Human Body

...but [it is a work] of three hours, etc. For this, one needs neither 50 nor 100,000 Guilders original: "Gulden." A gold or silver coin used throughout the Holy Roman Empire; the author implies that the true work cannot be bought with currency.; everything that costs money is useless here. Regarding this, no Process A "process" in alchemy refers to a written set of instructions or a recipe. has been written in all the world; whatever has been written concerns one of the previous three Referring to the Vegetable, Mineral, and Animal stones mentioned on the previous page.. To write of this one, or to reveal it, stands in no man’s power; GOD reveals it to whom He wills, and here it is truly said: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of the grace of God who shows mercy original Latin: "Non est volentis, neq; currentis, sed miserentis Dei gratia." A quote from Romans 9:16, frequently cited by alchemists to indicate that the "Donum Dei" (Gift of God) is only granted to the pious.. Whoever wishes to prosper in this work must be well-united with GOD; he must be well-equipped Cabalistically and Magically in his Oratory Oratorio: A private room or chapel for prayer. In the tradition of "Laboratory and Oratory," the alchemist was expected to pray as much as they worked at the furnace.; he must be well-qualified through an orderly, God-fearing, rightly constituted and well-ordered life; and finally, he must be well-instructed through the preceding anxious sweat of his brow A reference to the labor required of Adam in Genesis, here signifying intense spiritual and physical effort. with constant diligence and perpetual, unremitting, industrious persistence. If GOD then finds him well-equipped with all these and many other qualities, he then has good reason to hope for the Philosopher’s Stone Lapide Philosophorum: The legendary substance capable of turning base metals into gold and acting as a universal medicine..

But those who have an inconstant mind, jumping quickly from one thing to another, who are devoted to worldly lusts, desires, affects, passions, sin, shame, and vice, who fill their thoughts with great wealth, and already have schemes for when they obtain the Stone—what estates they will buy, how they will live, daily gluttony, drinking, being merry, keeping beautiful women, beautiful dogs and horses, wearing magnificent clothes—and

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