The Heaven of the Philosophers, or the Book of Vexations

God and Nature do nothing in vain.

54 In whatever series of all things, the perpetual sequence of time and the beginning and the end; the places where the power operates, it operates essentially where there is no hope, it operates that which is considered impossible. That which even seems incredible and desperate is wonderfully taken into truth.

55 Whatever tinges into a white color has the nature and property of life, and the power by which it causes and makes life: In this motion, indeed, is the fire with its heat, its life, and its origin.

56 Whatever, on the contrary, tinges into blackness or makes black has a nature common with death, and the property of darkness and the effective force of death: The coagulation and fixation of such corruption is earth with its coldness. For the house is always dead, but he who inhabits it lives: if you can discern the example of this thing, you have won.

57 Take four ounces of saltpeter: half the amount of sulfur: one ounce of tartar: mix and liquefy.

58 To mortify or coagulate Mercury, and afterwards to coagulate into one.