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

radical metallic moisture, is Salt: for those two are corporified by the Sun itself. Whence without the Sun we can accomplish nothing in our art, nor are we able to see and touch our Mercurius and Sulphur. And he who works in our art without that Salt shoots with a bow without a string. Therefore, he who knows the effect of that Salt, so that our Mercurius and Sulphur may emerge and appear from it, knows the foundation of the art. We must therefore study, and we must read through all the Books of the ancients, so that we may first know this Salt, and its effect: for without the effect of the Salt itself we can have neither Mercurius nor Sulphur to perfect our work, but with the effect itself we make the volatiles, which are fixed in it. Without that volatility, however, we cannot have the Sulphur and Mercurius enclosed and captive in the Salt as if in a prison; and unless we have those volatiles, we are not able to purify them, nor could our Elixir be perfected accordingly. Since it is perfected only from the purest metallic principles, which can be had only by effect and sublimation, as will become most clear in the following chapter.

CAPUT XI.

On the solution of our Salt, so that we may be able to have our Mercury and Sulphur through sublimation and distillation.

Our Salt is difficult to dissolve, and if there is anything difficult and laborious in the whole art, it is the solution of our Salt. For with great difficulty and long labor it putrefies, and it cannot be made without putrefaction. We must therefore putrefy it first before we dissolve it. Therefore, before we make it putrefy, we must purify it highly. It is purified, however, by dissolving it in water distilled from rain or dew, rectified seven times, and we must freeze it, and dry the dissolved substance by distilling it, and finally effect and dry it until it arrives at the highest and ultimate aurification. At that time, while it is most pure