Fountain of Wisdom — Anonymus von Schwartzfuss, 1706

( 25 )

reach her goal. For the necessity of iron almost forces humans to tear the material original: "Materiam" out of the earth before its time, while it is not yet perfectly worked. They melt it and apply it to their own use.

5. Likewise, this impure metal can in no way be purified or extracted from its filth except through the addition of the white and red sulfur of the sages the alchemical agent of transformation. As soon as such a thing is added, the iron is immediately transformed into gold or silver. Nature cannot accomplish this in a thousand years.

6. From this it is clear that Art, which follows nature in everything, completes such things much sooner through its work than nature can when she is not supported by Art. For Art transmutes this very material into iron in five months time; into silver in seven months; and into gold in nine months.

7. These, however, are not common metals, but the metals of the sages, which have no fellowship with common ones. For common metals are dead, but those of the sages are living, full of power, and they grow until the very highest perfection.