PREFACE.

...all things are born. Likewise, when the vapor passes through places where the fatness original: "pinguedo" of Sulphur The masculine, combustible, and stabilizing principle that provides form to the fluid Mercury adheres, that vapor, which the Philosophers The alchemists of old called Mercury In alchemy, Mercury represents the fluid, transformative, and feminine principle of matter, adapts itself and joins with that fatness. From this mixture, a certain oiliness is created, and the name "vapor" is left behind.

Treatise 6.

Tract. 6.

The four elements Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, by perpetual motion, drip into the bowels of the earth a heavy vapor of water, which is the seed of metals. This is called Mercury because of its fluidity and its ability to join with every thing—not because of its actual essence. It is likened to Sulphur because of its internal heat. When it is joined to the fatness of the earth, it then becomes the oily radical moisture original: "humidum radicale unctuoſum"; the fundamental life-fluid of a substance.

Treatise 8.

Tract. 8.

The elements, contending among themselves, cast their seed into the center of the earth as if into the kidneys. The center, in truth, through motion sends that seed out into the womb original: "matrix". These wombs The "matrix" refers to the specific geological pocket or environment where a mineral is formed are indeed innumerable; as many places as there are, so many are the wombs—one purer than another, and so on almost to infinity. Know therefore, that a pure womb will give a pure offspring original: "fætum" in its own likeness.