ON THE ORIGIN OF COMMON SALT.

speak a little / and explain it somewhat / for not a little depends upon this proof and knowledge / and let the mechanical arts original: "Mechanica" serve us here / thus we see first in all trades / that weave linen / silk / wool and hair cloths / that the longer-fibered and more delicate these fibers or threads are / which they wish to weave / the more capable and stronger their work becomes / just as wool or silk that is too short-haired / etc. serves for nothing but coarse felt. Secondly, we see with the papermakers / that when they have sorted their rags / and work each sort under the stamps / so that they become delicate and fluffy like a down feather / and they further give them the right Salt 🜔 The symbol 🜔 represents Salt, here acting as a binding agent or "glue." / then they receive from each sort a good and capable paper / but where they work the rags far too strongly / so that the fibers are entirely divided / and are torn apart under the stamps / and work themselves into small spheres original: "Globulis" / just like a Sulfur 🜍 The symbol 🜍 represents Sulfur, the flammable principle in alchemy. driven up by Fire 🜂 The symbol 🜂 represents Fire. / then it becomes a brittle and worthless paper; The same condition exists with the metals and minerals, Letter T. for just as with the papermakers and felt-workers the rags and wool are worked with Water 🜄 The symbol 🜄 represents Water. / and are brought to firmness with the Salt-glue 🜔 / so are the red and white Sulfur 🜍 of the metals worked into almost identical metallic threads by the delicate Sulfur 🜍 (which serves them in their texture Note Well. in place of water / ) physically worked out here for the first time / each worked out in its own kind and species / where one is coarser than the other / as the mechanical arts clearly lay before our eyes / especially in the blacksmith and wire-drawer trades / for the better the two Fires The author uses 🜂ra, likely referring to the internal "fires" or active principles within the metal. have been worked out in the metals / the better and more steadily they allow themselves to be worked and extended / as we have to see especially and undeniably in Gold ☉ The symbol ☉ represents Gold or the Sun. and Silver ☽ The symbol ☽ represents Silver or the Moon. both in their very thin and delicate leaves / as well as in gilded and silver wire. For my GOD? how a small quantity of the same can be extended into an almost immeasurable and incomprehensible delicacy / indeed almost to transparency / which the aforementioned texture proves more than sufficiently. That also Copper ♀ The symbol ♀ represents Copper. and Iron ♂ The symbol ♂ represents Iron. are worked by the Sulfur 🜍 (as their necessary weaving-Water 🜄) better and more steadily for work and all necessities than Lead ♄ The symbol ♄ represents Lead. and Tin ♃ The symbol ♃ represents Tin. / is given to us to recognize irrefutably by daily experience and manual labor / and although Tin ♃ and Lead ♄ are soft and gentle / and also allow themselves to be drawn into a wire and driven into thin leaves / they nevertheless tear very quickly in such work / from which it is enough to conclude / that their texture or weaving / like a spoiled or coarse paper / was beaten far too strongly or far too little by the subterranean Fire 🜂 (as mentioned briefly above) / therefore their body remained close to the unworked body or metallic Sulfur 🜍 namely the Antimony 🜗 The symbol 🜗 represents Antimony, considered here a "near-metal" or immature form. / and just as this consists of an incomprehensible number of minutest spheres original: "Minissimorum Globulorum" / and thus cannot withstand the Fire 🜂 in the least / nor allow itself to be hammered and extended / because these innumerable spheres, like a Mercury ☿ The symbol ☿ represents Mercury or Quicksilver., do not hold together for lack of living Sulfur 🜍 original: "sulphur vivi" / nor can they be stretched and hammered / like the four woven metals Gold ☉, Silver ☽, Copper ♀ and Iron ♂. Thus and in the very same way these two bodies Referring to Lead and Tin. consist of such coarse spheres, whereby the reduction of these two bodies to a living Mercury ☿ original: "mercurio vivo" may be demonstrated and easily proven / which is also sufficiently known to all true Chemists; for when they are separated from their heterogeneous part / namely the combustible Sulfur 🜍 original: "sulphur comburenti" / they are nothing but Mercury ☿ / and that there must be little living Sulfur 🜍 with them / is taught by undeniable experience / in that we ourselves separated almost over 11 ounces of good Mercury ☿ from 1 pound of Lead by means of some alkalies original: "Alcalinorum" / and an artist was known to us before / who by this very same way / yet with somewhat longer time and other techniques / separated almost 14 The Roman numerals XXIV here likely refer to 14 or a specific weight measure in context. from 1 pound. Which then clearly demonstrates what was just said / namely that they mostly consist of Mercury ☿ / and have little living Sulfur 🜍 with them. But here again there is an opportunity / to digress a little / and to lay a stumbling block in the path of the "too-learned" Letter U. / and ask / how can this possibly rhyme together? That one can transform almost the whole body of Lead ♄ and Tin ♃ (to say nothing of Mercury ☿ for now / ) into a natural Salt 🜔 / so that hardly a fourth part is lost / (which is nothing but a naturally burning Fire 🜂 and a little earth) ? And further / through this very same yet reversed solvent original: "Menstruum," a term for a substance that dissolves a solid. / one can transform these very bodies Lead and Tin / entirely into a Mercury ☿ ? so that almost little or nothing at all is lost / for in this work the combustible Sulfur 🜍 vitriolizes itself / and is subsequently turned into Mercury ☿ / I see the answer already prepared: But first I will be permitted / to speak a few more words. Namely / that we do not mean here such a Gold ☉, Silver ☽ and Tin ♃ / which all laborers / sloppy cooks / and apothecary boys can make with Vitriol ✣ The symbol ✣ here represents Vitriol or a specific mineral salt. or other acid waters ♒ The symbol ♒ represents Water or a liquid solvent. / and which can be reduced back into its first body with fats or through other advantages / No / we do not mean such a thing / and since one knows no other / we say openly / that such a person has not yet come to the right well of the sweet sea / nor bathed in the water. We also do not mean a high Philosophical Gold ☉ / prepared through the Vitriol of Nature ✣ original: "sal naturæ" / where namely such a body has been reduced back into its first clinical saline essence / or to its first principle original: "ad primum principium suum" / but our speech is of a true metal Gold ☉ or spiritual Gold ☉ to distinguish it from common Gold ☉ / as from which a metallic body is still always to be separated. And such a salt is easy to make for those / who well understand the right simple and not costly solvent / and the right calcination The process of heating a substance to high temperatures to change its physical or chemical constitution. of the body / well known to all true Chemists: Therefore we further ask, not unfairly / since these bodies Lead ♄ and Tin ♃ (to say nothing for now of the other metals / ) are almost entirely pure Mercury ☿ and yet at the same time almost entirely pure Salt 🜔 / how can this rhyme with what the Physicists otherwise teach / that the metals consist of three beginnings or Principles original: "Principiis" / namely Salt 🜔, Sulfur 🜍 & Mercury ☿ / and how they wish to maintain such principles of theirs in the face of such true and clear proof. And who can now be-

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