Chemical Letters to Excellent Philosophers and Physicians in Germany

distillation. Some have gathered various works, omitting universal precepts and general operations. Lullius and Vlstadius touched upon one distillation of the quinta essentia fifth essence/quintessence with the separation of elements; almost the entire remainder is merely infusion or a certain type of extraction. Vlstadius also added some things about the stone, and Lullius is copious on it in other books. Paracelsus, in his Archidoxis, has labored over the precepts of special operations, but in his own manner—ἀμεθόδως without method, perplexedly, and unrefinedly. One person promised a great Alchemy. I saw the first book. It is unworthy of such a boast. In all the books I have looked at, I find a desire for the method of the complete art and for evidence. Therefore, I formed a plan, since such labor did not seem to be, nor should be, that of a single man, to approach learned men and friends through letters—by which I would not only declare and signify my mind and plan, but also propose the facts through a kind of σκιαγραφίᾳ sketch/outline of the work, so that they could easily judge the matter and, if they had known anything through experience, add it. Once a hand was applied to it, the work grew into a proper commentary, which to publish in the way that others are accustomed to publish the letters of learned men