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

CAPUT IX.

What is the Sulphur of the Philosophers, which may perfect our work with Mercury?

The Mercurius of the Philosophers cannot be explained without also explaining their Sulphur. For they are one and the same in the same subject, nor can they be separated; for that which is hot and fiery in the Mercurius is Sulphur, but that which is moist is the Mercurius. For Mercurius always carries that natural and innate heat with itself, and that heat is never separated from this moisture in the Mercurius, whence it is said by all Philosophers that Mercurius has within itself good innate Sulphur, by which its moisture is coagulated into gold. The Sulphur of the Philosophers is therefore that radical heat which is present in Mercurius, and in all things, by the aid and benefit of which all things are led to maturity, and to ultimate and absolute perfection. Whence the Mercurius of the Philosophers acquires maturity and perfection by its sole and unique Sulphur, whence it is completed into perfect Gold. Whence if gold were liquid and penetrable, it would be the true Elixir for life and for the absolute perfection of all things and metals. But it cannot be naturally transformed by cooking into a liquid and penetrating substance, because the nature of the vessel in natural things, where Mercurius is cooked into gold, cannot again and again add pure and liquid Mercurius to it: because liquidity and penetration depend solely upon Mercurius, who, since he is liquid, and highly penetrating, makes the substance liquid, in which he superabounds. Whence the chemical art, in making the Stone of the Philosophers, adds its Mercurius three or four times, or more often, to the coagulated stone, so that an abundance of Mercurius may bring about liquidity and penetration in the stone: so much so that our Stone sometimes liquefies into a fixed liquid oil, and is never coagulable into a firm and hard substance. It remains, therefore, that the Sulphur of the Philosophers