P R E F A C E

...drachms 1, Sulfur 2, Vitriol 2, with Silver in a crucible with Arsenic let them flow.) Because also all the signs of the heavens, and the characters of the stars and Planets, with their altered and inverted words and names, as well as the recipes for matter and the tools of the artists, are most commonly known to the crowd, there will be no need to bring forward and inculcate the same things again in this booklet, although I do not forbid the use of these signs, names, and characters for myself, when it seems convenient.

Here, however, another method of Alchemy is handed down, accommodated to the 7 metals in an infallible and natural way, albeit in words that are not at all embellished, but uncultivated and simple; yet in their sense, as much as possible, abstruse and profound. These are by right the mistresses and the sum of all Alchemy, from which the mysteries of other things can be brought forth, divined, and known, along with many new speculations from which new thoughts and wonderful operations emerge into the public light upon examination, so that in many places they may be found, even by examination itself, to contradict the dogmas of the Philosophers.

Nothing is more certain in this art than that which is least perceived and believed. This is the sole fault and cause of all operations in Alchemy, whence many go to their ruin, working in vain out of their ignorance; or because there is more matter, or less, or an equal weight, whence the thing is more corrupted and destroyed in the operation, or if the thing is touched with the needle, it is more exalted and yearns for perfection. For the way is very easy, but it is found by very few. It also happens that an ingenious man thinks up an art and a certain Alchemistic method, whether he produces "Something" or "Nothing." He must produce "Nothing," so that he may reduce "Something" into "Nothing," and again...