Two Treatises on the Nature of the Elements and the Fifth Essence

...mist like crystal. Here it was possible to see the Spirit Spirit original: "Spiritû." In alchemical philosophy, the spirit represents the volatile, active, or gaseous principle of a substance. battling against the Body, and when the spirit had finally overcome it, from the two of them, ONE was made. The Body Body original: "Corpus." This is the solid, material foundation of a substance. served the Soul, and it acted as a stable dwelling-place for it. The Spirit uplifted the Body and the Soul, not unlike the crystalline heaven. The Soul Soul original: "Anima." The soul was viewed as the mediating link between the physical body and the volatile spirit, often associated with the "tincture" or color of the material. added ornament to both the Spirit and the Body with its rosy—and I might almost say heavenly—color The "rosy" or red color often refers to the Rubedo stage, the final success in the alchemical "Great Work.".

Here, I noted with my own eyes destruction, resurrection, and immortality. For this reason, I could not but be grateful toward my Creator, and love most wise Nature more and more.

Soon I also decided for your sake, Reader, to commit all these things to writing, if perchance any benefit might overflow for your advantage, and you might thus be drawn away from useless exercises. I hope that this work, whatever it may be worth, will not be despised by you, and that you will not count it a fault against me that I have not fortified this writing with the authority of the ancient Philosophers original: "priscorum Philosophorum." Drebbel is distancing himself from the "book-learning" of figures like Aristotle or Galen, prioritizing direct observation of nature.. To tell the truth, I have neither read nor consulted any of them on this matter. At least these things to you...