Friedrichstadt Leisure or the Chemical Tantalus

Nay, that these are of such disparate condition and modification that one could sooner combine oil with water into one body with an indissoluble coupling, and heaven could sooner be mixed with earth; and this is the mind, nay, this is the decree of the school of Philosophers and Doctors, against which no one would dare to mutter or whisper, unless he wishes to be struck and stunned by the thunderbolt of the anathema of ignorance and incompetence. But let these abound in their own sense, and embrace a frog for Diana.

§. 3. That water and Earth play both pages, nay, that
even water is the genital field to which the prolific and fruitful seed
ought to be committed, and thus this very seed, committed to this field,
is dissolved into insensible atoms, although that aqueous matter is a collection
of innumerable bubbles and dissolves itself with light motion into innumerable bubbles,
it is known. (This assertion of ours perhaps places a hypothesis of bubbles for the Patron
who instituted the founding of a new physics from a collection of bubbles, but he seems to labor
from the bubble of an overly fervent wit) and that the philosophical field
immediately transmutes this very seed into its own substance, by putrefying in a space
of a moment, we are taught by the faith of experience. Wherefore the student of
Chrysopæa gold-making here ought to imitate the farmer, who, before he sows,
is anxious about obtaining a fertile field and good seed. And thus let the Philosopher
know the philosophical field and the seed, and he will apply effort.
Imbued with this knowledge, let him commit his seed in the name of God, and with His
help implored. But what the field or the seed may be, the Adepti teach,
these are to be read incessantly.

§. 4. This divine Labor also teaches them that three mills or organs
neatly imitating the grinding of mills are required. The first mill observes a similar rite
to that which the field observes, to which the seed is committed. This field
grinds the seed committed to it by putrefying it into a mucilaginous matter,
not unlike porridge, with the pristine form and figure abolished, which later
begins to germinate. In the same way the philosophical field grinds the seed
committed to it and as it were putrefies it. We call this field a mill. Concerning
the grinding of the two mills, we will speak later. These organs, imitating a
mill, Nature herself, the best guide, light, and companion in this work, shows.
I call Nature the guide because she hand-leads the pious, honest, and diligent student to