Marengus — Secrets of Chemical Pallas Revealed, ca. 1700

then it is said to devour the slippery tail of the dragon. Then the lion eats the lion, and the lion feeds on lions, that is: the red lion feeds on the green lion. Similarly, when the perfect stone is waxed with its own solar oil, then it is said to devour its own tail.

In the composition of the stone you shall observe this measure, or these weights: let there be three parts of animated water and one part of philosophical gold. When you are distilling the calx of gold together with mercury, and when you have dissolved the foliated earth with the quicksilver of the philosophers and distil them together, then it is said that the belly—namely, the mercury—carries the gold in its belly.

The Eagle is common mercury. The Cold Dragon is natural gold, which is found among us. It is indeed cold because it is not operative, and its virtue lies as if dead and locked away.

The Stone is composed of one, namely from the mercurial substance. It is composed of two: namely from the earth of gold, or from calcined gold, and from common mercury; or from foliated earth and from philosophical quicksilver. It is composed of three: namely from spirit, soul, and body, which is from philosophical silver (which is spirit), from foliated earth (which is soul), and from the calx of gold (which is body). Or it is explained thus: it is composed of three, namely from spirit (which is the mercury of the medium substance), from soul (which is the mercury of the sun), and from body (which is calcined gold, or foliated earth, or the element of the earth of gold). It is also said to be composed of four, namely from the four chemical elements. For the mercury of the medium substance is water, foliated earth is air (which is also called fire by reason of the gold included in it), and finally the calx of the sun is the element of earth.

Others indeed explain it thus: from gold dissolved with the water of the medium substance and putrefied, first the element of water is extracted, second the element of air, third the element of fire (which is the oil of the sun). In the bottom of the vessel, however, remains the element of earth, as will be explained more clearly elsewhere. Some,

however, not attending to the chemical elements, say the stone is composed of the four general and physical elements, because those four elements are found in the stone either by themselves or virtually and through their qualities.

When it is said by brother Basilius Valentinus, and before him by Hermes, that if you have spirit, soul, and body, from them will also be made quicksilver, sulfur, and salt, it should be understood thus: you will have the quicksilver of the philosophers, sulfur (or foliated earth), and salt (namely the gold-making salt, or the stone decocted for the first time). Note, however, that even calcined gold or the ashes of gold are called salt, which nevertheless is useless by itself unless the interior is made exterior. That is, unless it is reduced into mercury, and thus its spirit is extracted and sublimated with the element of earth into foliated earth. If you do this correctly, you will have the salt of the philosophers and the most vivid incombustible oil. Also, the soul of gold is called quicksilver and sulfur. Likewise, the element of earth and also sublimated sulfur are called salt.

When the philosophers say: "make what is above below, what is visible invisible, palpable impalpable, and manifest hidden," this means that the foliated earth should be dissolved in its own animated water; or that the stone decocted once should be dissolved again with animated water and multiplied. When, however, they add: "make again from the lower the higher, from the invisible the visible, from the impalpable the palpable, and from the hidden the manifest," that denotes that the dissolved matter must be cooked again, fixing it and reducing it into earth or into the stone.

The ancient sages of this art called the mercury of metals or their oils the blood of metals and their spirit. The remote matter of the stone is the calx of gold and common mercury, or the medium substance, while from these one mercurial water is made.