A New Chemical Light with Twelve Secret Chemical Tables

PREFACE.

Therefore, the matter of the art original: artis materia; the substance the alchemist works with may be somewhat similar to the matter of nature; yet they are not entirely the same and one. Moreover, nature is necessary to the artist original: artifici; the alchemist as a guide and author, both in the management of the matter which she supplies, and in the formation of the Gold-making Stone original: Lapidis aurifici; a variation of the Philosopher's Stone specifically noted for its transmutative power, which nature promotes and multiplies when aided by art. Understand it in this way: it is not for the artist to be occupied in creating the matter. For that which has been created does not need a creator. Always, the ultimate matter of Nature—the point where she has finished and ceased—is the first matter of art, the point where art begins. This is exactly the case with gold. Therefore, one must begin from it. Truly, just as in nature nothing grows without a seed, so every thing possessing a seed can be multiplied in that same seed through art, with nature assisting and supplying its growth or the substance for its increase. That a gold-making seed original: semen aurificum is present in gold, no one of sound mind will deny.

Wherefore, it can be multiplied in its own seed by means of art. And so, consequently, gold will be the matter or subject from which the Seminary Form original: Forma Seminaria; the generative or "seeding" principle that allows the stone to grow of the stone, just as

matter, nature, Gold-making Stone, gold-making seed, Seminary Form, artist