The New Chemical Light

Second Treatise

The Seed original: "Semen" or Sperm, having been projected by the four Elements into the center, passes to various places; and according to the nature of the place, the thing is given its nature. If it reaches a pure place of earth and water, a pure thing is created. The Seed and Sperm of all things is one and the same, and yet it generates various things, as appears from the following example:

The Seed of man is a noble seed, and at least was created as a creature The Latin 'creatura' here implies something specifically fashioned for a purpose. for the generation of humanity; nevertheless, if a man should misuse it—which is within his free will—a monstrosity original: "abortus"; in this context, it refers to a "miscarriage of nature" or a deformed birth. is born. For if, against the most serious prohibitions of God, a man were to enter a cow or another beast, the beast would easily conceive the man's seed because nature is but one; and then a Human would not be born, but a beast and a monstrosity, since the seed did not find a place suitable for itself. In such an inhuman and detestable mixing of men with beasts, various beasts similar to humans would be produced.

For it happens in this way: if the Sperm enters the center, that which was meant to be born from it is born; but when it has already come into a place and conceives, it no longer changes its form. However, while the Sperm is still in the center, a tree can be produced from that sperm just as easily as a Metal Metal: in alchemy, metals were thought to grow like plants within the earth, or a herb as quickly as a stone, one being more precious than the other according to the purity or impurity of the place.

But how the Elements generate the Sperm must now be told by us, and it happens in this way: the Elements are four; two are heavy, and two are light; two are dry, and two are moist; but one is especially dry, and another is especially