PREFACE

Treatise 4. If the vapor passes through warm and pure places, with which it is joined, it becomes Gold original: "sol"; literally "the Sun," the alchemical name for gold. If the places are cold and impure, it becomes Lead original: "Saturnus"; the astrological name for lead, etc.

ADDITION

Regarding the first matter original: prima materia; the formless, primordial substance from which all things are created and the generation of metals, there are almost as many different opinions as there have been philosophers In this context, referring to alchemists and natural scientists of the Renaissance who have written about them. Among these, Theophrastus Paracelsus A Swiss physician and alchemist (1493–1541) who pioneered the use of minerals in medicine has, in my opinion, shot closest to the mark. He called minerals the fruits of the element of Water, just as, by contrast, he named plants the fruits of the element of Earth.

The former [minerals] have their roots in the seawater, but they take their primordial medium original: Chaos; for Paracelsus, this refers to the specific element or "atmosphere" in which a thing grows within the earth and grow up within it. Plants, however, have their roots in the earth but seek their medium in the air, in which they sprout and grow tall.

Furthermore, he gives us to understand that minerals receive their masculine seed—which is their form—from heavenly influences; their matter original: "materiam" and body, however, they receive from the seawater. Within the belly of the earth, no differently than in a womb original: matrice; the specific geological pocket or environment where a mineral is formed, they are brought to maturity through the action of the internal mountain-fire original: Bergfeuer; the subterranean heat believed to drive the "cooking" or ripening of metals, or...