The Chemical Theatre, Vol. IV

we shall say, and have already said, that you should seek to understand this with a scientific spirit Original: "spiritu scientifico," referring to a systematic, rational approach to knowledge rather than a purely religious or uneducated one., and not a hagiographical or common one. This is because we are speaking in relation to the operations of nature, which you must learn to imitate in our mastery The "mastery" (magisterium) refers to the alchemical process or Great Work.. Therefore, we speak by way of examples, so that you may understand us well, as has been said, and not merely as it is written.

For the supreme creator divided this part into five. He created from the purer part the quintessence of the elements, which shares in the celestial nature, and which we represent by the letter O. From this quintessence, he made four parts: from the first and purest part he made fire, which is the first element. From the second part, which was also quite pure, he made air, the second element. From the third part, which was pure but followed air, he made water, the third element. From the fourth part, which was the least pure, he made earth, the final element. We wish the first to be signified by P, the second by Q, the third by R, and the fourth by S.

Insofar as nature is more perfect in elemental things, it is completed as a whole with little additional perfection. For one element is perfected by another through the harmony of their properties and those of the fifth instrument The "fifth instrument" refers to the quintessence acting as the underlying medium for the other four., which participates in celestial things. In that substance which later descends from those elements—possessing a lesser nature through the perfection of generation and corruption—the process is reversed, because its instinct or "appetite" comes immediately from the creation of nature. Therefore, what nature does is not entirely perfect compared to the perfection that comes directly from the Creator, rather than through nature. For that which comes from the Creator is perfect without destruction.

Indeed, that instinct or appetite of nature cannot make a thing perfect unless it is completed by divine intellectual science—much like human nature, which is corrected by divine intelligence, just as a beautiful and good work is completed by a skilled craftsman. Through this, the son of the art son of the art: an apprentice or initiate into the alchemical mysteries can understand the nature of the primary elements after the division of the third substance created at the beginning. However, he should not think that their substance is the simple fifth element itself, but rather the fourth, third, second, or first substances "elemented" That is, formed into elements (elementata) from the primordial source. from that fifth part, which we call the primordial element and simple substance. Through this, the four mentioned elemental substances are formed, each according to its own nature, as we have explained above.

These four elements, thus created, remained pure and clear by virtue of the clear part of nature from their creation until the time of the elder Original: "presbyteri." In this context, it likely refers to the "Ancient" or the first man, Adam., through whose sin nature departed [from its original state]. He was called "the race" Original: "genus.", and from him, from the time of his birth [came mortality]. But afterwards, humans, birds, beasts, fish, and various things born of the earth died...