The Most Secret Rosary of the Philosophers

the philosopher: let the artisans of Alchemy the art of transmutation know that the species of metals cannot be transmuted unless they are perchance reduced to their first matter; and then, indeed, they are transmuted and converted into something else than they were before. And that is because the corruption of one is the generation of another, both in artificial and natural things. For art imitates nature and in some things corrects and surpasses it, just as infirm nature is changed by the industry of physicians. For nature does not build a house, nor does it make an electuary a medicinal paste, because it does not have movement of itself to do this. So also our stone the Philosopher's Stone, although it may naturally contain a tincture within itself (for it was perfectly created in the earth), yet of itself it has no movement to become a perfectly completed Elixir the agent of transmutation, unless it is moved by art. Sometimes, therefore, art perfects what nature cannot work; but art imitates nature and perfects natural things, insofar as they are apt by nature to be perfected, and therefore one must assist through art, because certain things are omitted by nature. Nor is there a difference between nature and art, except that art acts outwardly, while nature works inwardly.