ON ALCHEMY

herbs and juices, but also the tears of trees, even stones and flints themselves, can be drawn out into oils, waters, and spirits. In these and similar matters, if you desire, I will not be reluctant to satisfy you.

Chrysogonus: Why do you tell me of meltings and distillations? I promised myself much greater things from you. You understand what I want. To say it in one word: I especially desire to know whether metals can be exchanged, and by what means. Can the lower metals be changed into the noble ones, and into the purest gold? If you say it is possible, it remains for you to explain which spirits or principles cause this transubstantiation (as they call it). You cannot deny that these things are well known to you.

Theophrastus: It is absurd that you wish to learn from me things I have never confessed to know. I have never performed experiments on such matters myself. You have spent your labor in vain until now. Your ignorance of physical matters, which you show clearly, betrays that you will continue to do so. These are the axioms accepted by physicists:

From nothing, nothing can be generated.

The principles of any generation (to speak without ambiguity) must not disagree with that which they strive to produce. Instead, they should share a great deal with it, as I will explain below. Thus, a metal is not made from an egg, nor a crocodile from a metal, though you might think either could happen vice versa. Yet you have tried to perform far more absurd things. To answer your questions more clearly: metals cannot be exchanged, especially those that differ in weight and density. Gold differs from the others in its gravity and solidity. Therefore, I will not speak of others which hardly differ in these qualities; nor does that pertain to your questions.

Chrysogonus: Yet even the older Arabs do not deny what you usually assert as false.

Theophrastus: No, you have not understood their words. Why have you not more carefully examined that saying which serves as an oracle to them? They say:

THAT WHICH IS GENERATED MUST BE REDUCED TO ITS OWN PRINCIPLES.

Go now and bring forth your riddles and dreams. Such things as transubstantiation or the artificial generation of things, as if from nothing through art, are absurd according to the laws of nature. In those things, there is no sympathy. This relates to things so often repeated and recited at every street corner that I am reluctant to repeat them again. They say there is a certain primary matter of all things which they call Hyle original: "Hylen", from the Greek term for matter or wood.. From this comes perpetual generation. This primary matter is potential when prepared for generation, but in itself, it is an actual thing. Conversely, it will never receive those things for which it lacks the potential, as seen in the previous example. When it is embraced by a form to which it is then subject, it achieves actuality. Furthermore, this primary matter does not perform anything randomly. It retains a certain quantity within itself, which they call indefinite. Although these things are most manifest, you and your flatterers have preferred to act foolishly. You subject the natural reason of primary matter to fires and burnings. You cannot deny that you seek all your belief in generation from fires. Yet fire should not be established as an element, nor can it generate. It draws everything outward, while the generating matter draws everything inward.

Chrysogonus: I cannot agree with you when you deny what is most accepted even by the Arabs themselves. They subject not only metals but metallic things themselves to fires in so many ways.

Theophrastus: You always strike the same wrong note. I am no longer speaking of metallic operations, but of the reduction of generated things to their principles. The Arabs learned from Zoroaster The ancient Persian prophet, often cited in alchemical texts as a source of primordial wisdom. that the nature of fire is to consume all things. When all is consumed, the fire itself perishes. It is the property of celestial heat to generate, not the heat of fire.

Chrysogonus: But those same Arabs say that the generation of all metals consists of these principles: mercury original: "hydrargyrio", literally silver-water. and sulfur. Therefore, gold can be made from mercury and sulfur.

Theophrastus: If you had said cinnabar original: "cinnabarim", a bright red mineral consisting of mercury sulfide., perhaps I would agree. But do you not see that making something is different from generating it? I will make the matter clearer with an example. I will propose it with common sense original: "crassa Minerva", a Latin idiom for plain, practical wisdom.. If someone offered you ten grains of wheat and said bread could be made from them in infinite proportion, you would easily believe it once you understood the process. You would understand the generation required for this, and the delay. As the proverb says, it is time, not the field, that brings forth the ears of corn. But suppose you wanted to teach this to a man from the farthest reaches of India or Iceland, who never saw sowing or harvest. If you did not want to speak openly but prescribed mere enigmas—such as the earth must first be calcined, ground, the grains dissolved, buried, sublimated, and later coagulated (I think you recognize your own terms) and cooked—he would understand, if I am not mistaken, that the earth must be furrowed with a plow. The clods must be turned again, the seeds cast in a certain order and quantity, and the maturity of what grows must be awaited. Once the manifold grain is harvested, it is transformed into bread, not without labor. Yet those enigmas contained in your books are even more inexplicable.

Chrysogonus: You tell the truth, but return to where you digressed. You said generated things must be reduced to their beginnings, and that this is consistent with nature. Yet this seems impossible to me.

Theophrastus: On the contrary, to me (even though I have not done it) it is quite easy; yet it is not without God original: "ἄνευ θυοῦ", likely a Greek rendering of "not without divine help" or "not without the natural order".. Let this be an example. Those who wish to skillfully make wormwood wine can use this shortcut. If they reduce the herb itself into a very thin spirit, it can have such power that a single spoonful poured into a whole quart draws the whole thing into its own nature, expressing the taste and smell of wormwood.