Epistolary Form of Chemical Matters

As if chrysurgia gold-working were such a common trade that a shoemaker—who not infrequently has great industry, being able to sew a shoe or a boot well and skillfully—could learn it at first sight. Chrysopoeia the making of gold is indeed possible, whether it produces true gold, or a metal that is very similar or even more excellent, just as many of the philosophers and artisans testify with one voice; nor are there lacking the supports of histories and experiences, which are by no means dissonant from natural power and truth. For reason also supports it. Therefore, one should not despair of this part of chemistry. But that those who crawl out of mechanical workshops and are deserters of the craft, who bleed magnates of their money and swindle them through parachymic smoke, can understand and properly practice it—how has it ever come to be that this was believed? I wish I could persuade Princes to alienate themselves from all such people who promise grand things with big words, when nevertheless the matter itself costs but a few expenses (for Arnoldus asserts that the whole work costs fifty crowns; the theorems set before the crowd do not require more than an ounce of pure gold, of vanity...).