Chemical-Philosophical Treatise on Natural and Supernatural Things

where it is attracted by the stars, by magnetic virtue, out of love, from whence it previously departed and was produced, because it is held by a desire for its likeness. If, however, this spirit of Mercury can be seized and made corporeal, it is resolved into a body and passes into a pure and limpid water, which is the spiritual water and the first Mercurial root of minerals and metals; it is spiritual, insensible, incombustible, without any mixture of earthy wateriness, and is the celestial water, of which very many writings exist. For by this spirit of Mercury, all metals can be broken down without any corrosive, be set free, and be resolved into their first matter, where there is need. This spirit is restorative for men and beasts, just like the eagle; it consumes all vices and prolongs its own age very greatly. This spirit of Mercury is the principal key to my others, of which I wrote in the beginning; hence I will exclaim: Approach, you blessed, that you may be anointed with oil and refreshed with water, perfume your bodies with aromatics, so that rot and stench may be warded off. For celestial water is the beginning, and oil is the middle, where it does not burn, being made from spiritual sulphur. And it is a corporeal salty balsam, which, by the benefit of water, is united to oil, concerning which I shall speak more later, if I have imparted and noted some things about them.

To explain more lengthily the essence, matter, and form of this spirit of Mercury, I affirm that its essence is blessed, the matter is spiritual, and the form is earthly, which must, however, be accepted in a certain incomprehensible way. These are indeed acute words, and many will call my discourse a cabbage original: "cramben" (referencing the proverb "crambe repetita" or warmed-over cabbage, implying repetitive or tedious talk) cooked too often and strange eloquence generating strange thoughts. Truly this is so; they are altogether strange, hence they will require strange men who can grasp the sense. It is not written for the rustic, how they might grease their axles, nor does it confer anything upon those who are utterly rude in the art, even if they are most swollen with the persuasion of erudition. That man alone seems learned to me who, having taken care of the divine word, can sift earthly things to be judged by reason with true knowledge, and is able to discern darkness from light, with evil separated from the good.