PREFACE.

literal, the sound of words &
the apparent method of the Au-
thors, that there should be found
Wise men, & Scholars in this
science, who yet hardly
understand a single word of
Latin. original: "Latin". Latin was the primary language of scholarly and alchemical treatises; the author suggests these practitioners lack the education to read the original sources. O how many are there
who believe themselves very skillful,
because they know how to perform a
fine distillation, a calcinationThe process of heating a substance to high temperatures to reduce it to a powder or "calx.",
or a subtle sublimationThe process of turning a solid directly into a vapor and then back into a solid to purify it..
How many are found as well
who, having fixed an
opinion in their head about
what they have read, & as they
say, about the procedure of
some Author, imagine
themselves very learned, & who,
when success does not respond
to their expectation, are careful
not to attribute it to their ignor-
ance, but to the fact that the vessel
broke, or to the management of the This likely refers to the "regime of fire," or the specific sequence of temperatures required for an alchemical operation.