PREFACE.

the support and confirmation of Chemical Truth original: "veritatis Chymicæ"—which is so undeservedly decried—I neither should nor could hide or wrap in silence. This is so even though in these malignant times (where virtue and vice are held as equals), because of the unworthiness of the age and the ingratitude and faithlessness of men (to say nothing of the curses of the Philosophers), this truth greatly fears to come forth into the public.

I could bring forward witnesses of this Chemical Truth—namely, the most authoritative authors, in accordance with the unanimous consensus of venerable Antiquity original: "Antiquitatis" across so many different nations. Yet, things which are seen by ocular experience original: "experimento oculari" — meaning things witnessed with one's own eyes through practical laboratory work require no further proof. Many men of both the highest and lowest station have seen that DIANA original: "DIANAM" — in alchemy, the "naked Diana" is a famous allegory representing the secret matter of the Great Work once it has been stripped of its external impurities and "veils" without her veil in these past years (and I speak from certain knowledge).

And although certain troublemakers are found who—either out of envy, malice, or fear that their own frauds original: "imposturarum" might be detected—loudly claim that the "soul" can be extracted from gold and, through a pompous and vain display of delusion, be returned to another body, they do so not without the loss of time, labor, and expense...