On the Philosophers_ Stone.pdf

On the Philosophers' Stone

From A.E. Waite's Collectanea Chemica , London, 1893.

CHAPTER I.

The Introduction.

Because many have written of the Philosopher's Stone without any knowledge of the art; and the few books extent,

written by our learned predecessors and true masters hereupon, are either lost or concealed in the collections of such

(however despised) as are lovers and seekers of natural secrets, we have taken a resolution to communicate our

knowledge in this matter, to the intent that those who are convinced the Philosophical Work is no fiction, but

grounded in the possibility of Nature, may be faithfully directed in their studies, and have an undoubted criterion to

distinguish between such authors as are genuine sons of science and those who are spurious, as writing by hearsay

only.

We shall not on this occasion give a summary of their names who are undoubted masters in the art, but shall take

occasion to introduce them, as it may be necessary, in the following chapters; and as their sense is often concealed

under a studied ambiguity of expression, we shall, out of the gift which the Almighty hath dispensed to us, declare

plainly, and without any reserve, the first matter of the Philosopher's Stone, the manner of proceeding through the

whole process, both in the Vegetable and Metallic Tinctures, beginning with the Vegetable process first, as the most

easy and simple, yet well worthy the attention of all ingenious persons, particularly the practical chemists and

preparers of medicines.

CHAPTER II.

Of the Vegetable Tincture, or the Process called the Lesser Circulation.

Very few of the true philosophers have touched upon this subject, for it seemed trifling in respect to the great work,

as the process in metals is generally termed; but there is a modern publication in English, a small thin duodecimo,

without any author's name, having for its title: Aphorismi, seu Circulus majus et Circulus minus, wherein the whole

process is plainly laid down.

This book is written by an undoubted master in the art; and no treatise, ancient or modern, is so explicit in the

directions for conducting the great work. The directions are very short, but much to the purpose, provided the reader

has an idea what part of the work is alluded to. The author, agreeable to his title, delivers his doctrine by way of

aphorisms. But to return from this digression.

We proposed in this chapter to lay open the vegetable process, as a clue to the more important work in the mineral

kingdom. A certain person, who is now living, and advertises balsam of honey, tincture of sage, etc, has turned his

studies this way; and from his great abilities as a professed physician and botanist, has convinced all unprejudiced

persons that noble tinctures may be extracted from vegetables. We hope this gentleman will not despise our free

communication, both to him and the public, if we show the insufficiency of his method, though it is ingenious, while

we establish the rationale of ours on the never-failing ground of truth and philosophy.

He observes, with a precision which can only result from numerous trials, that different herbs impart their tinctures

in such proportions of alcohol as he has found out. It is allowed that the volatile spirit and balsamic sulphur are thus

extracted; but there are the essential, or fixed, salt and sulphur of the herb yet left in the process. These require

another management to extract, which he is either ignorant of, or is so disingenuous as to conceal from the public;

but that so noble a secret may lie open to all for a general advantage, here follows a plain account of the vegetable

work.

Take any herb which is potent in medicine, and either extract the tincture with spirit of wine, or distil in the common

way; reserve the distilled water, or tincture, when separated from the feces, for use. Then take the feces, or Caput

Mortuum, and calcine it to a calx. Grind this to powder.

That done, take the water, or tincture, and mix them together; distil again, and calcine, forcing the moisture over by

a retort, in a wary process, calcining and cohobating the spirit on the salt till it attains a perfect whiteness and oily

nature, like the finest alkali, commonly called Flemish.

As your salt requires it in the process, have in readiness more of the extracted tincture, or distilled spirit, that you

may not work it, viz., the salt, too dry; and yet proceed cautiously, not adding too much of the moisture, so that the

dealbating, or whitening, may keep visibly heightening at every repetition of the process. Frequent experiments may

enable you to push it on to a redness, but a fine yellow is the best of all; for the process tends, in its perfection at this

period, to a state of dryness, and must be managed with a strong fire. By following these directions, you have here

the two tinctures in the Vegetable Kingdom, answering to the white and red tinctures in the mineral.

CHAPTER III.

Of the Uses of the Vegetable Tinctures, with some general remarks on their great efficacy in medicine.

You have, by carefully following our directions above, procured the tinctures, white or yellow, in the Vegetable

Kingdom. The yellow is more efficacious if the work is well performed; either of them, by being exposed in the air,

will soon run into a thick, essential oil, smelling very strong of the plant, and the virtues of any quantity may be

concentrated by often repeating the circulation. But you have no need of this, unless for curiosity, there being in

your tinctures a real permanent power to extract the essential virtues of any herb you may require on immersion

only, where the essential salt and volatile spirit, together with the sulphureous oil, are all conjoined, floating on the

top of your tincture, and the terrestrial feces precipitated to the bottom; not as in distillation, or extraction of the

tincture with alcohol, while the stalk and texture of the plant are entire; no, this Vegetable Tincture devours the

whole substance of the plant, and precipitates only the earthy particles acquired in its vegetation, which no degree of

calcination could push to an alkali, without its essential salt.

Such is the virtue of our Vegetable Tincture; and if the operation be never so often repeated with different herbs, it

loses nothing of its virtue, or quantity or quality, casting up the virtues of whatever herb is immersed, and

precipitating the earth as before when both are easily separated and the medicine preserved for use.

Let a medicine, thus prepared, be examined, and the principles by which it is extracted, with the general methods of

preparation; if the distilled water for instance, of any aromatical or balsamic herb, be took, common experience will

convince us that nothing but its volatile parts come over the head; but take the Caput Mortuum, and it will calcine

after this process, and afford an alkali, which proves itself to be an essential salt by its pungency, and will, in the air,

run to an oil, which is its essential sulphur. If you take the tincture extracted with alcohol, it is the same, only the

more resinous parts of some herbs may enrich the extract, and the volatile sulphur giving the color and scent, be

retained, which escapes in distillation; but the potent virtue or soul of the herb, if we may be allowed the expression,

goes to the dunghill. It is the same if the expressed juice of the herb is used; and if taken in powder, or substance, as

it is sometimes prescribed, but little of its virtue, beyond its nourishing quality, can be communicated to the patient,

except as a bitter or a vermifuge, in which cases, perhaps, it is best by way of infusion.

Let none despise the operation above laid down, because it is not to be found in the ordinary books of chemistry; but

consider the possibility of Nature, who brings about wonderful effects by the most simple causes: neither let any

imagine this process so easy as to perform it without some trials, patiently attending to her operations and

endeavoring to account for any deficiency in the course of his work. For this reason it will be proper that the artist

forms to himself an idea what the intention is to procure, how far Nature has prepared his matter to work upon, in

what state she has left it, and how far it may be exalted above the ordinary point of virtue, which it could attain in

the crude air, and this by the Philosophic Art assisting Nature, as a handmaid, with an administration of due heat,

which is nutritive and not corrosive.

A recapitulation of the foregoing process, with some remarks on the different stages, will be sufficient here to

explain our meaning above, and prepare the reader for what follows concerning the metallic tincture, or Stone of the

Philosophers.

The virtues of herbs and simples are confessedly great and manifold; among these, some are poisonous and narcotic,

yet of great use in medicine; none of them but want some preparation or correction. Now the common ways of doing

this are defective; neither preserving the virtue entire, nor furnishing any menstruum capable of doing it with

expedition and certainty. Alcohol, as was before observed, will extract a tincture and distillation a spirit. We reject

neither of these methods in our work, as they are useful to decompound the subject; but we are not content with a

part of its virtues.

To speak philosophically, we would have its soul, which is in its Essential Salt, and its spirit, which is in the

Inflammable Sulphur. The body in which these resided we are not concerned for; it is mere earth, and must return

from whence it came: whereas the soul and spirit are paradisiacal, if the artist can free them from their earthy prison

without loss; but this can only be done by death. Understand us aright. Philosophically speaking, no more is meant

than decomposition of the subject into its first principles, as the uniting them more permanently with an increase of

virtue is most emphatically called a resurrection and regeneration. Now this decompounding is to be done with

judgment, so as not to corrode or destroy, but divide the matter into its integral parts. At this period of the work the

artist will consider what is further intended, keeping Nature in view, who, if she is properly assisted in her

operations, produces from the dissolution of any subject something more excellent, as in a grain of corn, or any

vegetable seed, which by cultivation may be pushed to a surprising produce; but then it must die first, as our Blessed

Saviour very emphatically observes: and let this saying dwell upon the artist's imagination, that he may know what

he generally intends; for the whole philosophical work, both in vegetables and minerals, is only a mortifying of the

subject, and reviving it again to a more excellent life.

Now if the intention in the foregoing process was to increase simply any vegetable in its kind, the destruction and

revivification must follow the ordinary course of vegetation by the medium of seed; and Nature can only be assisted

by fertilizing the soil, together with a proper distribution of heat and moisture. Yet there are not wanting authors,

and particularly Paracelsus, who boldly describe processes wherein the vital quality of the seed has been destroyed

by calcination, and yet brought to life again at the pleasure of an artist. Such reveries are a scandal to philosophy,

and a snare to the superficial reader, who is generally more struck with impossibilities, roundly asserted, than the

modesty of true artists. These confess their operations are within the bounds of Nature, whose limits they cannot

surpass.

The reader, then, will consider that our intention here is not to increase the seminal quality, but to concenter, in a

little compass, the medicinal virtues of a herb. Nature is desirous of this in all her productions, but can only rise to

such a point of perfection, in her ordinary course, through the crudity of the air and fixing power of the elements.

Now if we take the vegetables at that point of perfection to which she has pushed them, and farther assist her in

decompounding, purifying, uniting, and reviving the subject, we obtain, what she could not otherwise produce, a

real permanent tincture, the quintessence, as it is called, or such a harmonious mixture of the four elementary

qualities as constitutes a fifth, from thenceforth indissoluble, and not to be debased with any impurity.

But the virtue of this Vegetable Tincture is capable of improvement ad infinitum, in its own kind, by adding more of

its spirit or extracted tinture, and repeating the circulation, which is every time more speedily finished, as there is a

magnetical quality in the fixed salt, and essential oil, which assimilates to itself all the real virtues of what is added,

only rejecting the feculent, earthy qualities; so that in a grain of the tincture much virtue may be concentered, not at

all corrosive or ardent, but friendly to the animal life, and most powerful as a medicine for disorders which the herb

is appropriated to cure. Nay, something of this nature was still sought for by the distillers of ardent spirits, when

phlegm has been drawn away from the volatile sulphur, till it becames proof spirit, as it is termed, which will burn

dry, a plain indication that it contained nothing essential in it from the subject out of which it was extracted: for that

which is essential cannot be destroyed by the fire, but is reddened to an alkaline salt, having in its center an

Incombustible Sulphur, which, on exposing to the air, manifests itself both to the sight and touch. Now, if this Salt

and Sulphur are purified, and the distilled spirit, or extracted tincture, added, Nature finds a subject wherein she can

carry her operations to the highest limit, if an artist furnishes her with proper vessels, and a degree of heat suitable to

her intentions.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Metallic Tincture.

When we undertook a description of the vegetable process, it was chiefly with a view to familiarize the reader to a

general idea of the Philosophic Work in metals, as both proceed upon the same principles, only the mercuries of

metals are more difficult to extract, and stronger degrees of heat are required, as well as more of the artist's time and

patience; neither can he succeed in the operation without frequent trials, and a constant consideration within his

mind as to what is within the possibility of Nature.

For this purpose it is necessary to know the composition of metals, that he may know how to decompound and

reduce them to their first principles, which is treated of very mysteriously by the philosophers, and purposely

concealed, as the right key to unlock all the secrets of Nature. We shall be more explicit on this head, for the time

draws near when, as Sendivogius has observed, the confection of the Stone will be discovered as plainly as the

making of cheese from rennet. But we warn the reader not to imitate Midas in the fable, by seeking the noble

tincture in metals out of covetousness; for the true wise men seek only a medicine for human infirmities, and esteem

gold but as it furnishes them with the means of independence and the exercise of universal beneficence. They

communicate their talents, without vain glory or ostentation, to such as are worthy searchers of Nature, but

concealing their names as much as possible, while living, as well as their knowledge of the mystery from the world.

We shall herein follow their example, and yet write more plainly of the Metallic Process than any of them has

hitherto done, knowing that the providence of the Most High will effectually guard this Arcanum from falling into

the hands of covetous gold seekers and knavish pretenders to the Art of Transmutation; because the first sort of men

will, from their impatience, soon leave the simplicity of Nature for processes of more subtlety invented by the latter,

and adapted to such avaricious views as the other have formed, who, judging of things by their own griping

dispositions, know not the noble liberality of Nature, but imagine some gold must be advanced before she will

replenish their heaps. This is well foreseen by those smoke sellers, who receive what they can catch, as if they were

her proper agents; and, having no conscience to put a stop to their imposition, the deception is kept up till all

vanishes in smoke.

Let it be observed, then, that all who have written on the art, from undoubted principles, assert that the genuine

process is not expensive; time and fuel, with manual labour, being all allowed for. Besides, the matter to be wrought

upon is easy to procure by the consent of all. A small quantity of gold and silver is, indeed, necessary when the stone

is made, as a medium for its tinging either in the white or red tinctures, which such pretenders have urged from

books of philosophers as a plausible pretence to rob the avaricious both of their time and money; but their pretences

are so gross that none can be sufferers in this respect, if they have not justly deserved it.

The reader may then rest assured that this process is not expensive, and reject all authors or practitioners who

advance anything contrary to this established verity, remembering the simplicity of Nature in her operations,

observing her frugal method in the production, and consummate wisdom in the dissolution of things; always

endeavoring at something perfect in a new production. And because we are here proposing to help her in a metallic

process, as before in the vegetable, let us consider a little how she forms the metals, in what state she has left them,

and what need there is of the artist's skill to assist her in pushing them to that degree of perfection they are capable

of attaining.

All true philosophers agree that the First Matter of metals is a moist vapor, raised by the action of the central fire in

the bowels of the earth, which, circulating through its pores, meets with the crude air, and is coagulated by it into an

unctuous water, adhering to the earth, which serves it for a receptacle, where it is joined to a sulphur more or less

pure, and a salt more or less fixing, which it attracts from the air, and, receiving a certain degree of concoction from

the central and solar heat, is formed into stones and rocks, minerals, and metals. These were all formed of the same

moist vapor originally, but are thus varied from the different impregnations of the sperm, the quality of salt and

sulphur with which it is fixed, and the purity of the earth which serves it for a matrix; for whatever portion of this

moist vapor is taking along its impurities, is soon deprived of heat, both solar and central, and the grosser parts,

forming a mucilaginous substance, furnish the matter of common rocks and stones. But when this moist vapor is

sublimed, very slowly, through a fine earth, not partaking of a sulphureous unctuously, pebbles are formed; for the

sperm of these beautiful, variegated stones, with marbles, alabasters, etc., separates this depurated vapor, both for

their first formation and continual growth. Gems are in like manner formed of this moist vapor when it meets with

pure salt water, with which it is fixed in a cold place. But if it is sublimed leisurely through places which are hot and

pure, where the fatness of sulphur adheres to it, this vapor, which the philosophers call their Mercury, is joined to

that fatness and becomes an unctuous matter, which coming afterwards to other places, cleansed by the afore-named

vapors, where the earth is subtle, pure, and moist, fills the pores of it, and so gold is made.

But if the unctuous matter comes into places cold and impure, lead, or Saturn, is produced; if the earth be cold and

pure, mixed with sulphur, the result is copper. Silver also is formed of this vapor, where it abounds in purity, but

mixed with a laser degree of sulphur and not sufficiently concocted. In tin, or Jupiter, as it is called, it abounds, but

in less purity. In Mars, or iron, it is in a lesser proportion impure, and mixed with an adjust sulphur.

Hence it appears that the First Matter of metals is one thing, and not many, homogeneous, but altered by the

diversity of places and sulphurs with which it is combined. The philosophers frequently describe this matter.

Sendivogius calls it heavenly water, not wetting the hands; not vulgar, but almost like rain water. When Hermes

calls it a bird without wings, figuring thereby its vaporous nature, is it well described. When he calls the sun its

father and the moon its mother, he signifies that it is produced by the action of heat upon moisture. When he says the

wind carries it in its belly, he only means that the air is its receptacle. When he affirms that which is inferior is like

that which is superior, he teaches that the same vapor on the surface of the earth furnishes the matter of rain and

dew, wherewith all things are nourished in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. This now is what the philosophers

call their Mercury and affirm it to be found in all things, as it is in fact. This makes some suppose it to be in the

human body, others in the dunghill, which has often bewildered such as are fond of philosophical subtleties, and fly

from one thing to another, without any fixed theory about what they would seek, expecting to find in the Vegetable

or Animal Kingdoms the utmost perfection of the Mineral. To this mistake of theirs, without doubt, the philosophers

have contributed with an intention of hiding their First Matter from the unworthy; in which they were, perhaps, more

cautious than is necessary, for Sendivogius declares that occasionally, in discourse, he had intimated the art plainly

word by word to some who accounted themselves very accurate philosophers; but they conceived such subtle

notions, far beyond the simplicity of Nature, that they could not, to any purpose, understand his meaning.

Wherefore, he professes little fear of its being discovered but to those who have it according to the good pleasure

and providence of the Most High.

This benevolent disposition has induced him to declare more openly the First Matter, and fix the artist in his search

of it to the mineral kingdom; for, quoting Albertus Magnus, who wrote that, in his time, grains of gold were found

betwixt the teeth of a dead man in his grave, he observes that Albertus could not account for this miracle, but judged

it to be by reason of the mineral virtue in man, being confirmed by that saying of Morien: "And this matter, O King,

is extracted from thee." But this is erroneous, for Morien understood those things philosophically, the mineral virtue

residing in its own kingdom, distinct from the animal. It is true, indeed, in the animal kingdom mercury, or

humidity, is as the matter, and sulphur, or marrow in the bones, as the virtue; but the animal is not mineral, and vice

versa. If the virtue of the animal sulphur were not in man, the blood, or mercury, could not be coagulated into flesh

and bones; so if there were not a vegetable sulphur in the vegetable kingdom, it could not coagulate water, or the

vegetable mercury, into herbs, etc. The same is to be understood in the mineral kingdom.

These three kingdoms do not, indeed, differ in their virtue, nor the three sulphurs, as every sulphur has a power to

coagulate its own mercury; and every mercury has a power of being coagulated by its own proper sulphur, and by no

other which is a stranger to it.

Now the reason why gold was found betwixt the teeth of a dead man is this: because in his lifetime mercury had

been administered to him, either by unction, turbid, or some other way; and it is the nature of this metal to ascend to

the mouth, forming itself an outlet there, to be evacuated with the spittle. If, then, in the time of such treatment, the

sick man died, the mercury, not finding an egress, remained in his mouth between his teeth, and the carcass

becoming a natural matrix to ripen the mercury, it was shut up for a long time, till it was congealed into gold by its

own proper sulphur, being purified by the corrosive phlegm of the man's body; but this would never have happened

if mineral mercury had not been administered to him.

CHAPTER V.

Of the Second Matter, or Seed in Metals.

All philosophers affirm, with one consent, that metals have a seed by which they are increased, and that this seminal

quality is the same in all of them; but it is perfectly ripened in gold only, where the bond of union is so fixed that it

is most difficult to decompound the subject, and procure it for the Philosophical Work. But some, who were adepts

in the art, have by painful processes taken gold for their male, and the mercury, which they knew how to extract

from the less compacted metals, for a female: not as an easier process, but to find out the possibility of making the

stone this way; and have succeeded, giving this method more openly to conceal the true confection, which is most

easy and simple. We shall, therefore, set before the reader a landmark, to keep him from tripping on this difficulty,

by considering what is the seed wherein the metals are increased, that the artist may be no longer at a loss where to

seek for it, keeping in view the writings of our learned predecessors on this subject.

The seed of metals is what the Sons of Wisdom have called their mercury, to distinguish it from quicksilver, which

it nearly resembles, being the radical moisture of metals. This, when judiciously extracted, without corrosives, or

fluxing, contains in it a seminal quality whose perfect ripeness is only in gold; in the other metals it is crude, like

fruits which are yet green, not being sufficiently digested by the heat of the sun and action of the elements. We

observed that the radical moisture contains the seed, which is true: yet it is not the seed, but the sperm only, in which

the vital principle floats, being invisible to the eye. But the mind perceives it, and in a true artist, as a central point of

condensed air, wherein Nature, according to the will of God, has included the first principles of life in everything, as

well animal and vegetable as mineral; for in animals the sperm may be seen, but not the included principle of

impregnation: this is a concentered point, to which the sperm serves only as a vehicle, till, by the action and ferment

of the matrix, the point wherein Nature has included a vital principle expands itself, and then it is perceivable in the

rudiments of an animal. So in any seculent fruit (as, for instance, in an apple), the pulp or sperm is much more in

proportion than the seed included; and even that which appears to be seed is only a finer concoction of sperm,

including the vital stamina; as also in a grain of wheat the flour is only the sperm, the point of vegetation is an

included air, which is kept by its sperm from the extremes of cold and heat, till it finds a proper matrix, where the

husk being softened with moisture, and warmed by the heat, the surrounding sperm putrefies, making the seed, or

concentered air, to expand and to burst the husk carrying along in its motion a milky substance, assimilated to itself

from the putrefied sperm. This the condensing quality of the air includes in a film and hardens into a germ, all

according to the purpose of Nature.

"If this whole process of Nature, most wonderful in her operations, was not constantly repeated before our eyes, the

simple process of vegetation would be equally problematical with that of the philosophers; yet how can the metals

increase, nay, how can anything be multiplied without seed? The true artists never pretend to multiply metals

without it, and can it be denied that Nature still follows her first appointment? She always fructifies the seed when it

is put into a proper matrix. Does not she obey an ingenious artist, who knows her operations, with her possibilities,

and attempts nothing beyond them? A husbandman meliorates his ground with compost, burns the weeds, and

makes use of other operations. He steeps his seed in various preparations, only taking care not to destroy its vital

principle; indeed, it never comes into his head to roast it, or to boil it, in which he shows more knowledge of Nature

than some would-be philosophers do. Nature, like a liberal mother, rewards him with a more plentiful harvest, in

proportion as he has meliorated her seed and furnished a more suitable matrix for its increase.

"The intelligent gardener goes farther; he knows how to shorten the process of vegetation, or retard it. He gathers

roses, cuts salads, and pulls green peas in winter. Are the curious inclined to admire plants and fruit of other

climates? He can produce them in his stoves to perfection. Nature follows his directions unconstrained, always

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: