Manly P. Hall Collection, Box 10

spirits, both alkaline and acidic, as we shall see hereafter.

This manner of deflegmating spirits by their own alkali should serve as an example for all others of this nature.

Now take the salt, which, as a mark of its perfection, must reject all sorts of colors in the sun; it must be very limpid, tending toward greenish, and very heavy. This spirit is mercurial, mineral, and metallic. Imbibe the salt thus prepared with the aforesaid spirits by one or the other of the two ways, dry it over a gentle sand-fire in a well-closed vessel, re-imbibe it again with the same spirit, and dry it. Repeat this work seven or eight times or more—that is to say, as long as the salt, which is truly a virgin earth, will drink it up.

This is how the washing, imbibition, and nutrition of the "leafy earth" of the wise is done. This earth being thus sated, dry it with a gentle fire, then sublimate it with a graduated fire according to the art.

If everything sublimates and nothing remains at the bottom of your vessel but a very light grayish ash, the imbibition has been done well; if a fairly heavy mass remains at the bottom of your vessel, the imbibition must be restarted. This first? sublimation sometimes rises as flowers and other times as crystals, but both of these two sublimations are