Alchemy

...it does not present rehashed dishes: it will be for you to judge whether it be an essence, a tincture, and so forth, as it is called, or some kind of void. I am certainly not unaware that even excellent and approved authors, for the sake of hiding their discoveries and warding off the wicked, have called the same things by various and monstrous names: but I would have you be persuaded that their mind was always harmonious and constant; and since it is not deceptive speech, but the concurrence of things and experience that has revealed it, there is no reason for you to treat them as if they were impostors. Now you will also be able to counter the haughty pride and ostentation of certain people, and while they ascribe I know not what to themselves with marvelous titles, you yourself can prepare something either similar or more noble from the precepts of the art. But the benefits will offer themselves to you of their own accord. There is no need for a wordy defense. There are at least a few things of which you must be advised by me in this new and almost incredibly bold attempt. Many will deny, and stubbornly maintain, that I could not have given the complete art, because it is impossible that those hidden decrees concerning the Philosophers’ Stone and other secrets should have become known to me, since it is agreed that no one can arrive at those mysteries unless God teaches through oracles, or masters show them in person.

Note that I have added something concerning the philosophers’ stone according to the opinion of the craftsmen, even if perhaps neither I nor you can attain it. However, it is discordant, as I agree with Agricola, to repudiate that which has been asserted by so many wise men. Let it remain undecided.

Indeed, there is no reason for us to think God’s power more restricted and less favorable in our age than in the ancient one, since He has blessed the dregs of the world with greater benefits than He did its flower. But however I am judged not to have attained what they themselves perceived, nevertheless the method did not allow me to be ignorant of the place and head of the art which is due to that treatment. To me indeed (for let me be a fool before you for a little while) the speech and process of the Philosophers appear evident enough. If you do not understand it, do not on 그 account despair of the art, nor accuse it of imperfection. There are many things which require nothing less than a master of perfect industry and experience, and cannot be completed by a novice. But they are not to be despised for that reason, nor banished from the art. If it does not succeed in this part, there is no reason for you to sweat much: there are many other parts in which you will make it worth your effort. But I ask that you do not rush in with unwashed hands, nor, if Vulcan does not respond immediately, accuse me of fraud. No novice has so happy a genius that he finds everything certain at the first attempt. One must learn and experiment often; and so that this may be done without loss of resources, observe nature in few things and test the art. Fools pour out great expenses on things not yet thoroughly understood by them, and ignorantly condemn the magisteries.