FIFTH PART.

metals into better ones cannot be carried out and completed in particular. Therefore, the name of Alchemy was not given to the Transmutation of Metals by the ancient Philosophers rashly or without consideration, just as the Goldsmith obtained his name from the Gold with which he is occupied. The name therefore openly implies the matter that transmutes more ignoble metals into more noble ones, namely Salt, which, as a Universal Agent, not only matures metals naturally produced in the very bowels of the earth, but also matures the same ones outside the earth by the operation of art, and leads them to their due perfection. Salt alone and Fire alone are sufficient for the maturation and transmutation of immature metals. For Salt, as the agent, is impelled by Fire to exert its powers upon the metals, and by exerting those powers, it renders them better and more noble, just as Paracelsus openly testifies in the Heaven of the Philosophers, saying that the corporeal mixing of metals, even if mixed for a long time, may be kept in fusion, but cannot or is not wont to contribute the least bit to their transmutation: but if metals are to be perfected by some improvement, they arrive at the hoped-for improvement by being joined in a spiritual mixing, which corresponds most to the truth and openly signifies that without a Saline Agent and Fire, it is not permitted for metals to arrive at particular improvement and transmutation. The Prophet Elias, whose name when inverted shows the word Salia Salts to be read, did not perform his greatest miracles until he came to Zarpath, or Sarepta, that is, into a smelting workshop, where he replenished the oil jars of a poor widow so that she could live through the scarcity of food. For as long as Earthly Salts lie hidden in barren and rocky mountains, where nothing is born except juniper bushes, and they are nourished by the Stars, they cannot perform miracles, but they are only wont to perform them when they arrive at smelting workshops.