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WILLIAM SALMON

professor of physick

CHAPTER XXXVII

OF THE ORIGINAL OF METALS, AND PRINCIPLES OF

THE MINERAL WORKI

I. The Bodies of all Natural Things being as well perfect as

imperfect from the Original of time, and compounded of a

quaternity of Elements or Natures, viz.,Fire, Air, Earth, Water,

are conjoyned by God Almighty in a perfect Unity.

II. In these four Elements is hid the Secret of Philosophers:

The Earth and Water give Corporeity and Visibility: The Fire and

Air, the Spirit and Invisible Power, which cannot be seen or

touched but in the other two.

III. When these four Elements are conjoyned, and made to exist

in one, they become another thing; whence it is evident, that

all things in Nature are composed of the said Elements, being

altered and changed.

IV. So Saith Rhasis, Simple Generation and Natural Trans-

formation in the Operation of the Elements.

V. But it is necessary that the Elements be of one kind, and not

divers, to wit, Simple: For otherwise neither Action nor Passion

could happen between them: So Saith

Aristotle, There is no true Generation, but of things

agreeing in Nature. So that things be not made but according to

their Natures.

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VI. The Eldar or Oak Trees will not bring forth Pears; nor can

you gather Grapes of Thorns, or Figs of Thistles, things bring

not forth, but only their like, or what agrees with them in

Nature, each Tree its own Fruit.

VII. Our Secret therefore is to be drawn only out of those

things in which it is. You cannot extract it out of Stones or

Salt, or other Heterogene Bodies: Neither Salt nor Alum enters

into our mystery: But as Theophrastus saith, The Philosophers

disguise with Salts and Alums, the Places of the Elements.

VIII. If you prudently desire to make our Elixir, you must

extract it from a Mineral Root: For as Geber saith, You must

obtain the perfection of the Matter from the Seeds thereof.

IX. Sulphur and Mercury are the Mineral Roots, and

Natural Principles, upon which Nature her self acts and

works in the Mines and Caverns of the Earth, which are

Viscous Water, and Subtil Spirit running through the

Pores, Veins, and Bowels of the Mountains.

X. Of them is produced a Vapour or Cloud, which is the substance

and body of Metals united, ascending, and reverberating upon its

own proper Earth, (As Geber sheweth) even till by a temperate

digestion through the space of a

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Thousand Years, the matter is fixed, and converted into a

Mineral Stone, of which metals are made.

XI. In the same manner of Sol which is our Sulphur, being

reduced into Mercury by Mercury, which is the Viscous Water made

thick, and mixt with its proper Earth, by a temperate decoctiOn

and digestion, ariseth the Vapour or Cloud, agreeing in nature

and substance with that in the Bowels of the Earth.

XII. This afterwards is turned into most subtil water, which is

called the Soul, Spirit, and Tincture, as we shall hereafter

shew.

XIII. When this Water is returned into the Earth, (out of which

it was drawn) and every way spreads through or is mixed with it,

as its proper Womb, it becomes fixed. Thus the Wise man does

that by Art in a short time, which Nature cannot perform in less

than the Revolution of a Thousand Years.

XIV. Yet notwithstanding, it is not We that make the metal, but

Nature her self that does it. Nor do or can we change one thing

into another; but it is Nature that changes them. We are no more

than meer Servants in the work.

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