Medical-Chemical Work

continues from previous page: ...argue it of imperfection. There are indeed not a few things that require a perfect and most experienced Master, by which they are less likely to be finished by a beginner, for which reason it is not to be hoped for or banished from the art; if there is not a happy success in this part, it is not that you should expend much sweat, for there are others and more, in which you will make a trial and a worth of labor. Nor should you rush into our art with unwashed hands, I ask, nor if Vulcan the Roman god of fire/metalworking, here signifying the alchemical heat does not immediately smile or respond to your nod, accuse me of fraud; for no beginner has a mind so happy that he holds all things firm or finds them settled at first glance or first aggression; for the wise erred in labor, whence they were forced to restore the work anew, as is evident in our Philosophical Basilica. It must be learned and experienced often, but lest it be done with shipwreck and detriment of means, consult God first, then look at nature in a few things, and thus you will experience the art. For fools are they who pour out and expend great sums on a thing not yet perceived and completely unknown to them; hence it happens that the masteries are condemned by the ignorant and the common taunt is true: art has no hater except the ignorant. There will certainly not be lacking those who will divulge that I have not known the secrets of the ancients, but will cry out their own, and will congratulate themselves wonderfully about these things: But you, most Loving Reader, know for certain that I have never wished to be so lynx-eyed, nor so thievish, that I would look into the chests of others and wish to fly into them against their will, or steal silent preparations. When they wish it so, let them retain their secrets, provided they know that the sun will not be darkened, nor will the world live worse, even if neither they nor their secrets ever crawled into the light. If we use and enjoy the things present, which have been made manifest through good men with God's instigation, we shall pass the remaining age quite conveniently. To what end will it be useful if those mysteries and secrets are found only then, when the world burns? When the authors or rather the occultists rot among the serpents? Are they so unjust to human society? Are the births so monstrous, and the prodigies and abortions of nature, that they do not wish to celebrate and help that from which they were born? Are they so envious of Divine glory that what has been given to them, they do not wish to be granted to more? They will use it badly, they will say, the ungrateful. But you use it well, and do not bury it. Therefore, wine and gold were not to be hidden because most will abuse them. Nor do I doubt that some will be inclined toward the opposite side, who will judge it shameful that certain secrets are published in such manifest words, and that the Philosophers ought to be imitated, who hid the manifest thing with names and a way of teaching, and left them to the children of the doctrine: against these I judge there is no need for a response from me. For to me there is nothing secret; if there is anything, God has made clear the discipline and experience through wise and excellent artists. Monstrous names beget a Lerna the Hydra of Lerna, meaning a multitude of troubles of errors, especially...