Manuscript Transmitted to the Serene Duke of Holstein Explaining the Obscure Matters of Alchemists

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since from this pure and most pure [substance] made by artificial cooking, the Stone is made, from which all things suffering from deficiency are perfected, whence imperfect metals are perfected into gold or silver, when they suffer such a defect in the chemical art: this stone and substance is not changed, it is entirely the same as it is in nature; but men do not know how to use it: they abuse it, where it does not help at all, but rather works evil than good.

CHAPTER III.

What body the Philosophers' Stone has, and with what garment it is clothed.

This chapter encompasses the whole art and reveals it to the Wise, who know the chemical Lion. For, having known the body of our Lion, or the Philosophers' Stone, the rest, which remains, is nothing other than the work of women and the play of children: we must only cook at that time, and have patience and leisure, so that we may finish the work so desired. If the stone is the quintessence of the heavens and of all the elements, it can have no other body, nor be clothed in any other garment, than the body and garment of Salt. For while this Spirit is cooked here in the center of the Earth, by that cooking, it cannot be clothed in any other garment than that of Salt. For in this Salt we see all the elements: we see Fire because of the heat and remarkable burning quality; we see air because of the rarity and whiteness; we see water because of the transparency and humidity; we see Earth because of the corporeality and compact mass; we see the heavens because of the remarkable virtues and properties of the Sun, Moon, and all the stars, so that all the causes that made this salt are restrained and observed within it. What, therefore, shall we desire more in such a great and unique subject, which is called the Philosophers' Stone, and yet it is not a Stone, nor does it have the nature of a stone? It is called a stone, however, because it melts and liquefies in Water, which stones do not do. For they do not liquefy in Water, and they do not dis-