Alchemy

...than was fitting, in the hope of I know not what secret, he understood white arsenic, or sublimated mercury, red precipitated arsenic, or orpiment, and I know not what caput mortuum, and prepared a lethal medicine. If he had known that quicklime, minium, and Belgian soap were to be employed, he would have refrained both from the torment of investigation and from that dangerous use.

To those who are not skilled in the custom of the chemical discipline, all things that are said remain hidden, even if they are set forth in manifest terms and with their own marks, which those sufficiently initiated understand well enough. Thus all arts are remote from outsiders, especially if they are not translated into the common tongue and if they change the technical terms of the discipline.

Some will demand from me my own experiments, not those of other craftsmen, with which many books are filled. I, however, do not teach my own art, but set forth the chemical art as confirmed by the practice of craftsmen. If the exposition and the method of teaching are mine, that is enough. Yet know, Reader, that I too have applied some study to chemical matters, and that I am of no less talent than the cooks, flute-players, barbers, maidservants, perfumers, charlatans, etc., through whom some practice chemistry. Therefore, if there be need, I will show you that I also can distill spring water, to say nothing of turning wine into vinegar. Yet I have also added many things from my own store which you will not find elsewhere, although I have not attached my name. Let those, if it pleases, be granted to public use, or in the name of any good man.

I do not bring forward all formulas; nor does the art require even that: it is content with a few, and those proven, examples. Neither Dialectic nor Music heaps up all examples. If it pleases you, arrange under their own headings whatever things come to hand from any source, provided they are skillful and tested by use. I know likewise that a single chemical work is prepared in various ways: and perhaps there are some better ones in secret than those I have set down. But I have striven to choose the best from those which were at hand; and if the choice was doubtful, I have set down several, and reserved others for a commentary. If you happen upon better ones, you may substitute them for mine; I wished to be of service to those who did not know more convenient ways. Moreover, I would also have you consider that I ought not to have waited for the mysteries of others, nor