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TO THE READER.

If you should become an adept original: "adeptus"; someone who has mastered the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, I beg of you, do not forget the needy, lest God forget you. In this our Great Work, two modes—of fermenting and of projecting—are required; if these are suppressed, those who are not skilled in the craftsmanship of the work cannot easily attain it. Therefore, the mode of fermenting is as follows. Take one part of our aforementioned sulfur original: "sulphuris"; here meaning the prepared alchemical "Stone" or active principle and project it upon three parts of the purest gold fused in a crucible; in a moment you will see the gold, by the power of the sulfur, converted into a red sulfur of gold of a lower quality, like the first sulfur. Take one part of this again, and once more project it upon three parts of fused gold, and it will again be converted into sulfur, or a brittle mass. Take one part of this again upon three parts of gold, and you will have a metal that is malleable and extensible. If you find it so, it is good; otherwise add more sulfur, and it will again turn into sulfur. Then the sulfur, or our medicine, will be sufficiently fermented to a metallic nature.

The mode of projecting shall be as follows. Take one part of this fermented sulfur and project it upon ten parts of living mercury original: "Mercurii vivi"; quicksilver heated in a crucible, and you will have a perfect metal. If it is not sufficiently colored, melt it again and add more fermented sulfur, and thus it is colored. If it should turn out brittle, add a small portion of fused living mercury, and it will be perfect in all respects. Now you have here, Friend, a description of the universal medicine, as much for health—to drive away whatever diseases of the human body and to prolong life—as for transmuting all metals into the most perfect gold. Therefore, render infinite thanks to Almighty God, who, having pitied human calamities, has finally revealed this inexhaustible treasure to us in this our age, and we have laid it open for the common good. Above all, for the bounty of so great a gift, we pray that you do not sin in His sight; otherwise, if you do so, you will end up as a Midas with donkey's ears original: "Midas auritus"; a reference to the mythical King Midas, suggesting that greed and poor judgment lead to foolishness rather than wealth, without any gold.

The Second Process is this. Take of alkali salt, rock salt original: "salis gemmae", sal ammoniac, and tartar of white wine, one ounce original: "℥j" of each. Let them be dissolved separately in distilled rainwater, filtered, and evaporated in a glass vessel until the pure salt is dry. This labor, repeated three times, will yield salts suitable for the work described in the following, and therefore they must be kept separately in clean and well-sealed glass vessels.

Take six ounces original: "℥vj" of each of the aforementioned salts. Let them be ground into a fine powder original: "alkool"; a term used for the finest possible dust upon a porphyry stone, or any other hard stone such as painters use in grinding colors. Add four drachms original: "ℨiiij" of the regulus of antimony regulus|The metallic form of an element, often antimony, found at the bottom of the crucible after smelting—prepared in the ordinary way from equal parts of tartar and antimony with a fourth part of nitre. Add four drachms of living mercury, well washed in spirit of wine and vinegar. Let the regulus and the salts be ground together into a most subtle dust; when this is put into a wooden mortar, let the running mercury be added, and let the grinding and agitation of the materials be continued until the said mercury appears entirely absorbed.

Put this material into a circulatory glass vessel a vessel designed for continuous distillation and reflux, and pour into it half a pound original: "└ß" of most rectified spirit of urine, with one ounce of the volatile salt of the same urine and half an ounce of the fixed salt. Let the joints be sealed with the lute lute|A clay or cement used to seal alchemical apparatus airtight described below, and let it be set in slow digestion for fifteen whole days. Afterward, the vessel having been opened, add half a pound of most rectified spirit of wine; seal the pelican-vessel original: "vas pelicanatorium"; a circulatory flask with two side-arms for reflux as before, and set it back for another eight days in slow digestion, so that the materials may be well united. Let the vessel be opened again, and having added half a pound of most rectified spirit of human blood, let it be re-sealed as before, and let the slow digestion be continued for another fifteen days.

When these things are finished, let all the contents of the circulatory vessel be put into a long-necked matrass a round-bottomed flask, and let this be placed in a bath of ashes original: "cinerum balneo"; a sand or ash bath for even heating so that they may be distilled with a slow fire; this distillation will yield the solvent menstruum|A solvent used in alchemy to dissolve solid materials necessary for our work. Take half of the solvent drawn off by distillation and pour it back over the materials remaining in the circulatory vessel which were not well dissolved, so that it stands three fingers' depth above the said materials. Let the vessel be sealed again with lute and placed in a box filled with ashes to such a depth that whatever material is in them is seen to be well buried. Apply the heat for digestions and continue it at the same intensity for six whole weeks.

When these are finished, decant the clear solvent and pour fresh solvent over the remaining materials. Seal the joints with lute and digest again for two whole months as before. Afterward, having decanted the solvent and added new solvent—with a thorough agitation of the materials at the bottom of the vessel and stirring with a wooden spatula—let the lute be applied, and let the vessel be set back for three months to a slightly more intense digestion, namely with the registers original: "registris"; the air vents or dampers of a furnace of the furnace opened a little.

When this span of time is finished, let the vessel be taken out of its box and opened, and let the contained solvent be decanted to the very last drop. Again, pour spirit of May dew original: "spiritum roris majalis"; dew collected in May, believed to contain celestial virtue over the dregs to a height of four fingers; let the vessel be closed without lute and committed to slow heat for three days. Draw off the spirit of dew and add new, and repeat the digestion for three days again, iterating the same labor as many times as necessary for the total washing away of the acrimony of the salts, and until the contained material appears of an ash-gray color. Afterward, mix the material with the spirit of May dew, wash it well, and promptly throw it into a wide-bottomed glass vessel; and after it has settled, decant as much of the clear liquid as possible. Dry that material over the heat of the ashes so that it turns into a gray powder, which you shall grind as finely as possible upon a porphyry stone. Then you will have your material properly prepared.

Therefore, take one ounce of this material wrapped in wax or waxed paper, and four and a half or five ounces of old copper, purified in the manner described below. Put them into a suitable crucible, and having covered the crucible with a broad charcoal, throw it into a more intense fire so that the contained materials boil as much as possible for a quarter of an hour. Afterward, pour the said material into molds sprinkled with wheat bran, and having wrapped them in a moist cloth, let them cool. Then place the material taken out of the molds into a cupel cupel|A shallow, porous bowl used in assaying to separate precious metals from base metals with eight parts of pure lead: you will have three ounces of pure silver and half an ounce of gold.