Chemical-Philosophical Treatise on Natural and Supernatural Things

by many, and small things are sold for the greatest mysteries.

Now you must know that all Metals and Minerals of the earth have one matter, and also one mother, from which in general they have all obtained their full birth and corporeal essence. This matter, flowing from the center, spreads itself at the beginning into three parts, from which it constitutes a corporeal thing, with the certain form of each Metal. These three parts, however, are nourished under the earth only by the Elements from its own body, until they have acquired their perfection. The matter, indeed, descending from the center, conceived through the stars, produced through the Elements, and formed through the earthly thing, is certainly the known matter and true mother of Metals and Minerals; it is altogether that matter and mother from which man himself is conceived, born, preserved, and clothed with a body, to be equated in every way with the center; for whatever is in the macrocosm is also contained in the microcosm and vice versa. Thus, those things which exist together in the macrocosm and microcosm are also given in the center of the world, as it is that which composes the macrocosm and microcosm, and it is a certain soul, uniting and coupling the Spirit with the body. This soul is compared to water, just as it is in every way true water, yet not at all wetting like other water, but a celestial water, dry under a certain metallic and liquid substance, an animal water, friendly to all spirits, which it unites to its own body and gathers into a perfect life. Hence it is rightly proven that water is the mother of all Metals, which has grown hot with a warm fiery-airy heat, as if with a spirit of sulphur, so that the cooking of the same might place a soul into the earthly body, in which the salt manifestly appears as a preservative against rot, lest anything be consumed by corruption. In the beginning, therefore, of generation, mercury original: "hydrargyrum" is first produced, which prepares itself yet with its subtle coagulation, because little salt has been communicated to it; hence it exhibits a spiritual rather than an earthly body, but the other Metals, which all proceed from its substance and rejoice in a richer salt, from which they are animated, all follow this; now I begin from the spirit of Mercury.