Hydrographum spagyricum - Spagyric Hydrography

,
by Peter John Fabre, Doctor of Medicine of Montpellier.

In which the marvelous essence, origin, and power of springs is treated.

Toulouse (of the Tectosages): at Pierre Bosc, 1639.
With the King’s privilege.




Translated from the book:
Hydrographum spagyricum, Petri Ioannis Fabri, doctoris medici Monspeliensis. In quo de mira fontium essentia, origine, & tractatur

To Monsieur, the Marquis de la Flocelière.

Sir,

I should be utterly ungrateful if, having thanks to the air of La Flocelière, in the walks of your gardens and the valleys of your woods conceived and brought forth this present Work on Springs, I did not acknowledge that favor by dedicating and consecrating it to you, as an everlasting memorial of the benefits and honor I received in your house during the entire years that you kept me there. I confess it is a small thing in comparison with the favors and benefits I have received from you; yet, if I could do more, I would gladly do so, having no other intention than to give you all I possess in this world imperishable goods which I hold from the hand of God. It is therefore the most fitting gift for your generosity that I can offer you: be pleased to accept it, as coming from the hand of one who will be, all his life indeed even after his death your most humble and most obedient servant,

P. Fabre.


To the most noble and most renowned gentleman,
Monsieur de la Rivière de Gouby.

Everything returns to the spring whence it drew its beginning, most illustrious Sir, and no force though it be the greatest of all can overturn this natural order; for it is divine and has been implanted in all things by the Maker of all. Therefore, since from you alone I have received whatever light I have about natural things, the order of affairs compels me to return to this spring from which I bubbled forth. You are to me a stream, most noble Rivière; my waters come from no other. So if some judge me to be a stream, I hold you to be the true perennial fountain. If they call me a fountain, then you are the source; if a source, then I confess and acknowledge you as my sea. At length you are to me the true sun, from whom is the light by which I shine in the very midst of the night of human knowledge; by whose influence alone this fruit arose that bears the name Hydrographum. It is therefore just and right that it be first offered to you, since it is yours, and as a grateful token [reading uncertain]; for nothing that is yours is ungrateful indeed it surely is yours when you receive it as a gift a perpetual memorial of our friendship. Farewell.

Yours in all things, dearest friend,
P. Fabre.

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Table of the Chapters contained in this work

Book 1
I. What springs are, in general. p. 1
II. From where springs gush forth. p. 5
III. That springs can in no way come either from the sea or from the air. p. 8
IV. Whence the power and properties of springs arise. p. 15
V. Whence the vegetative and mineral virtue found in springs arises. p. 20
VI. Whence the animal virtue found in springs said to change the leaves of trees into birds arises. p. 25
VII. Whence the poison in poisonous springs arises. p. 28
VIII. Whence nourishment and the fuel of life arise in springs. p. 32
IX. Whence the medicinal power in springs arises. p. 37
X. Why some springs burn and take fire. p. 43
XI. On springs that undergo alternating tides, like the Ocean. p. 47
XII. On springs that discharge petroleum. p. 52
XIII. On springs that discharge quicksilver. [p. 56]
XIV. On springs that discharge small flakes of gold and silver. [p. 60]
XV. Whence muddy, swelling springs are found and how they are found stripped of every fable. p. 63
XVI. Whence the virtues and faults of springs are recognized by taste, that can be perceived by sight. p. 66.
XVII. On springs whose drinking produces intermittent fevers. p. 70
XVIII. On springs whose drinking produces bronchocele (goiter). p. 74
XIX. Whence fresh-water springs are found in the midst of the sea. p. 77
XX. Whence salt springs are found in the interior of the earth. p. 79
XXI. Why in winter springs are, by their natural power, divested of it, yet in the other seasons of the year regain that same power. p. 83
XXII. That the spirit of the world can produce springs everywhere. p. 86
XXIII. Why some springs are found that are vigorous by day but at night lack all virtue. p. 91
XXIV. Why some springs are vigorous at night but are silent by day. p. 94
XXV. Whence the various tastes and odors arise in springs. p. 99
XXVI. Why ordinary drinkable springs are cool in summer but warm in winter. p. 103
XXVII. Whence the movement of springs is toward different directions of the world. p. 109
Cap. Conclusion of the first book on Springs. p. 111
XXVIII. and last.

Book Two.

I. About the spring found in the district of Bélesta in the Pyrenean woods. 113.
II. About the spring that is called Son. 120.
III. About the Lake of Saint Bartholomew. 123.
IV. About the boiling/bubbling springs that are in the district of Dax, in the Pyrenees. 129.
V. About the spring called Demaine in Narbonese Gaul. 133.
VI. About the baths and springs of the place of Balar. 137.
VII. About the baths and springs of the place of Mont-ferran. 142.
VIII. About the springs and baths of the place of Baigneres. 148.
IX. About the springs of the place Dencausæ. 152.
X. About the springs and baths of the place of Barèges. 158.
XI. About the waters and springs of the place of Vic-le-Comte. 164.
XII. About the waters and springs of the place of Môtdor (Mont-Doré). 167.
XIII. About the baths and springs of the place D’Aygues-Caudes. 171.
XIV. About the spring of Clermont in Auvergne. 176.
XV. About the Spadan springs (Spa). 184.
XVI. About the springs of Nivernais, commonly called “Les eaux de Pougues.” 189.
XVII. About the baths and bathhouses of Bourbon. 195.
XVIII (and last). Conclusion of Book Two concerning springs. 199.

On the Chymists’ Fountain Book Three

I. What the Chymists’ Fountain is. p. 202
II. How many kinds the Chymists’ Fountain has. p. 205
III. By what method the Chymists’ Fountain becomes “animal.” p. 209
IV. By what reasoning the Chymists’ Fountain becomes “vegetable.” p. 213
V. By what reasoning the Chymists’ Fountain becomes “animal.” p. 216
VI. By what method the Chymists’ Fountain becomes gold. p. 220
VII. By what method the Chymists’ Fountain becomes silver. p. 225
VIII. By what special process the Chymists’ Fountain becomes iron. p. 228
IX. By what reasoning the Chymists’ Fountain becomes copper. p. 232
X. By what reasoning the Chymists’ Fountain becomes tin. p. 234
XI. By what natural process the Chymists’ Fountain becomes lead. p. 238
XII. By what method the Chymists’ Fountain becomes quicksilver. p. 242
XIII. By what marks the Chymists’ Fountain is distinguished so as to be known to the wise. p. 246
XIV. Whether, when perfected, the Chymists’ Fountain needs common gold or silver. p. 250
XV. What weight of its own gold and silver the Chymists’ Fountain requires. p. 255
Ch. Conclusion of the whole work, in which the radical moisture of all things is treated. p. 258
XVI (and last).

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Hydrographum spagyricum - Spagyric Hydrography of P. Joannes Fabre, Doctor of Medicine of Montpellier.

In which the marvelous essence, origin, and power of springs is treated.

Springs in General: What They Are
Chapter 1

It is no small difficulty among philosophers to define springs; for their nature is not simple water, but rather something compounded from the four elements, strengthened and formed by the world’s entelechy, in which the powers and properties of the heavens and of all the planets shine forth more strongly and more powerfully than in the other mixtures of the whole of nature.

How arduous and difficult to judge it is, in certain springs, which of the elements predominates in them; for indeed all things, the elements are manifest to the senses: fire contrary to nature and the fire of life in its belly and in its hidden part are perceptibly evident when certain springs burn; air is evident in them from the manifest limpidness of the water; and earth appears from their thickness and weight.

But in other springs earth and water are visibly apparent, while the remaining elements are hidden though they are quite evident from their secondary qualities as is clear from the spring that flows perpetually in Auvergne near Gergovia (what we commonly call Clermont), where that spring, in its course and flow, turns to stone; whence it seems that water becomes stone, and stone is (nothing but) water.

There are also other springs which must be thought to be liquid salt, others pure vitriol, others gold, others silver, others quicksilver, flowing together with the water endowed with marvelous powers and wonders for the cure of almost all diseases. But there are others that contain death, or pure poison mixed with their liquid lymph; and if the former pour out liquid life and health for the comfort of wretched men, these pour forth diseases and death itself in vengeance upon the impious who do not honor the Creator of nature with due praises and honor, but rather despise all created things and the Creator himself, save only gold and silver; and in vengeance upon such people the water, which in its common and customary stream of life and while it pours out the spirit of health, it belches forth deadly exhalations of death and of all diseases.

From all this we may gather how difficult it is to give a true and proper definition of springs. For they are not simple water, nor do they consist merely of a liquid mixture of various things. If one follows the source or flow of such springs those of which the springs “have a savor” (as it were) of vitriol, or of gold, or of silver, or of salt, or the like one does not actually find vitriol, gold, silver, salt, or the other substances whose powers and essences the springs seem to possess; rather, the spring suddenly ceases as soon as the place in which it is generated is found, and, once found, that place is altered in some way.

For by a change of the place and its alteration where the spring is generated the spring itself is straightway changed and altered, and very often destroyed and wasted away. This is a sure and evident indication that springs arise in nature by a peculiar productive power of nature, seeds of many things having been introduced that is, the general seed of all things implanted into the very material “seed” of the spring, which liquid is, of all the elements, a certain subtle and quasi-spiritual body, the world’s entelechy, that is, impregnated with the spirit of created light and, as it were, informed and actuated.

With these things premised, we may now define springs a certain seed of all the elements, impregnated and actuated by the spirit of created light. By its action alone, in cold and moist places and sometimes in hot and moist places that liquid seed of the elements is changed into a spring and produces springs of various kinds, according to the variety of places which by their own remarkable virtue attract that seed; and since they cannot cook and digest it into particular natural mixtures, they pour it out attracted, undigested, and intact in abundance, together with the powers and properties implanted and inborn within it, from the seed of each element and from the spirit of light, who is the moderator and governor of all these things. In his presence other things endure; in his absence all things collapse; when he withers, all things die.

Side Margin - The spirit of light is the governor of things.

Therefore springs are the seed of the world, or the universal seed of nature, undigested and uncooked, drawn into some particular natural mixture which, because of its own abundance, cannot coagulate into a mixture in the various places or wombs of nature; and since by the power of that place it cannot coagulate, it flows out as a liquid and thus springs come to be, possessing the natures of things whose spirits and powers have been introduced into that universal seed of the world. Now the powers of things are introduced into that general seed of nature by the celestial spirits, who with a perennial spring irrigate and sprinkle that universal seed of light, the celestial spirits are the influences and rays of the planets and of all the stars, which change and vary by their motion and aspect, and they introduce various powers and properties into nature’s universal seed. Thus in the mixed series of things diverse and innumerable products arise, and various springs bubble up in different cavities of the earth and at length break forth, from the variety and diversity of that general seed, coming from the various influences of the planets and stars as will be shown at length throughout this little treatise.

Side Margin - What the waters of rivers and the sea are.

The water that we see in streams, rivers, and even in the sea we do not regard as simple elemental water, but as the raw and uncooked seed of all nature, the undigested seed of all the elements. Each natural mixture takes it up as nourishment so that, by its own natural and inborn bright fire and by the stellar element corresponding to it, it may be digested and cooked, and, when cooked, be converted into the substance of the mixture. Hence we observe that the earth, moistened continually by the spirit of waters, is made fertile and suitable for every kind of plants, animals, and is found pregnant with the offspring of minerals, and it alone this spirit of waters nourishes, cherishes, and preserves all their offspring.

Side Margin - The earth’s radical moisture the seed and true nourishment of all things.

And if it nourishes, cherishes, and preserves them with such nectar, it must compose those very things in a like and selfsame manner: while it composes, it is ‘seed’; while it nourishes and feeds, it is reckoned ‘nectar.’

Side Margin - The waters of rivers, the sea, and springs are not simple elemental water.

Accordingly, since we do not regard the very water and liquid of rivers, streams, and the sea as elemental simple water, much less shall we call the waters of springs elemental and primeval seeing that springs constitute and compose the rivers, the streams, and the sea itself. From the perennial outflow of springs come rivers and streams; these waters gather into one and form the seas. For the seas are nothing other than waters gathered together into one; yet these waters are not simple and elemental, but composite and constituted from all the elements and by an entelechy, which is the spirit of light moving all of nature and its elements, which have never been separated from one another but are joined together for the bringing-forth of all things.

Side Margin - What “entelechy” is.

The mass of all the elements and of the entelechy which in the beginning was brought forth out of nothing by divine creation was divided only into four principal parts: the more subtle we call ‘heaven,’ the less subtle ‘air,’ the third ‘water,’ and the fourth, the grossest of all, we call ‘earth’; yet in all these the mass are present in the masses and the four elements, and the entelechy is mixed together and united with them, so that in each thing the several [components] are found.

But even if springs seem to gush out of the earth, we must not therefore argue that springs take their origin from a primeval and elemental water innate and mixed with the earth; for this is also owed to the air and to the vital fire which likewise are naturally in the earth. Nor should this be credited to the elements, since they still smell of first matter and of the primordial mass, whose nature is wholly passive and in no way productive of itself except by the benefit of its form, that is, of the entelechy, from which alone productive and efficacious actions proceed. The elements only supply the matter out of which the entelechy, or general form of the universe which is the motive power of the whole of nature fashions and composes whatever can be fashioned and composed.

Therefore, although springs burst forth from the earth, one must assert that they flow not from earth and water alone, but from all the elements. By the power and efficacy of the entelechy, which alone moves the elements to generation and to the production of all things, this same entelechy disposes them for this or that generation, according to the particular and specific energy of the spirit of light which descends from each star of the firmament, and it particularly arranges the elements for this or that generation, together with that general entelechy, the motive force of the whole universe, so that, wherever springs are produced, all the elements provide the matter. That general entelechy itself sets the production in motion; and the celestial spirits, which are of the same kind as the entelechy, particularly dispose the elements for this or that production of a spring, according to the particular energy of a celestial spirit, which has impelled all the elements and the entelechy itself to the production of this spring.

Side Margin - Springs are of a mixed (composite) nature.

Nor should springs be discussed otherwise than the other mixtures of nature; for in the order of things all springs whatsoever are true mixtures, and are the true, undigested and uncooked seed of nature, as we proved in the preceding chapter. And this seed can take its origin from the elements alone, by the force and energy of the entelechy and of the particular spirits of the stars of the firmament and the planets not from the sea, not from the air as will be shown very clearly in the next chapter, so that we may have a sure origin of all springs and no longer remain at the fork of wavering doubt.

Springs can by no means arise either from the sea or from the air.
Chapter 3.

I marvel greatly and with this wonder I am almost astonished why all the philosophers whether from the sea or from the air, all have said that springs take their origin. But since the land is higher and loftier than the sea and dry land appears above the waters, it is impossible that springs should gush from the lower sea up onto the higher land; for water does not rise higher than its own place and native head, otherwise all the laws of hydraulics would be false. And although in the natural order earth is lower than the other elements, by divine law and ordinance it has been made higher and loftier than the sea itself, so that dry land might appear above the sea for the use of living creatures.

Therefore sea-water cannot penetrate the commanding mountains of the land to arouse springs there; or if it does arouse them, why does not the whole earth everywhere abound with springs? Since the sea encircles the land on every side, why do not all springs flow perpetually, if they had a perpetual material and efficient cause? For the sea never fails, nor likewise the air; therefore springs too would never fail if that present and constant cause were theirs. Yet very often they fail in the months of July and August, although in those months the sea, and likewise the air, has equal indeed greater power of acting than at other seasons of the year. There are, however, other springs which flow all summer and in winter dry up, because their efficient cause is vigorous in winter but in summer grows feeble; and when the cause grows feeble and almost ceases, they cease, or at least dwindle some springs; but I do not think this can be so, if the sea or the air were the material and efficient causes of all springs since these causes are always flourishing and vigorous, and their force and power never cease or wither.

Nor can the foundation of this opinion that all springs flow from the sea be established by that sacred testimony of Ecclesiastes: ‘All rivers run into the sea, and the sea is not filled. The rivers return to the place whence they came, that they may flow again.’ For these words are not so easily understood that anyone can grasp them at once; for the rivers do not go out from the sea if they went out, the sea would overflow yet it does not overflow, though all rivers enter the sea. Rather, they tend toward the sea so that they may return from where they go forth, in order to flow again; for they do not go forth from the real and material place toward which they visibly tend, but they go forth from the real and material place toward which they invisibly tend, so that they may flow again.

Although indeed they visibly tend toward the sea, they do not tend thither as to the ultimate principles from which they had their origin; rather, they tend to the sea so that there they may be resolved into their own principles, from which they must flow again.

And thus Ecclesiastes is truly to be interpreted: ‘the rivers return to the place whence they go out, so that they may flow again’ that is, the rivers and all springs return to their principles so that they may be able to flow again; but the sea is not the principle of the rivers and springs, since every principle of any thing is invisible and is distinguished and differs from the very thing it produces. Now all things and rivers and springs as well tend toward their principles so that they may be made anew; otherwise they could not come to be. For they must be corrupted in order to be generated from there; and they are indeed corrupted visibly, and in their corruption they return to their principles, from which alone they come to be invisibly.

If this reduction of all things were not to occur, God would of necessity have to create the principles of things afresh every day, since the principles of things enter unceasingly into compositions and mixtures. Therefore, if mixed and composite things were not resolved into principles, and if Nature did not use those principles daily and continually in composing things, the storehouse of principles would at length be exhausted; whence it would be necessary that principles be created. But we hold it credible that nothing is created in the present order of natural things; rather, whatever comes to be from created things must do so by alteration and corruption.

Therefore the sea cannot be the principle of springs and rivers, since a principle ought to differ from the thing principled. But the sea does not essentially differ from the water of springs and rivers, since the sea is a gathering of the waters of springs and rivers; accordingly, it would be the principle of itself, if it were the principle of springs since springs make up the sea, if further, the sea were the thing that ‘set up’ the springs, the sea would then be the true principle of itself which, in natural matters, is absurd.

Side Margin - [Springs are not from the air.]

Nor can they take their origin from the air namely from air taken simply and by itself but rather from the spirit of life which dwells in the air itself and is stabilized there, so that from it the remaining elements are permeated and generations produced within them. Air (like the other elements) is something simple, and it cannot generate anything unless it is mixed with the other elements. Yet it is perfectly mixed in the very spirit of life together with the other elements; and in that spirit alone all generations are constituted and so too the generations of all springs.

Side Margin - [How springs in a way depend on air.]

Nevertheless, those who traced the origin of springs to the air deserve pardon, since the air is the matrix and principal womb of that universal spirit which is the principle of springs and the well-head of all waters. And so, in a certain sense, they could claim that springs gush from the air, since they are produced in its womb; yet they are not made from the matter of the air, but from the matter and substance of the universal spirit, which consists of all the elements and of light. In particular places like special wombs suitably disposed that spirit produces springs and waters; for given the coldness of the place and its humidity, it cannot bring forth anything else.

Side Margin - [Explanation of the fable of Pan.]

The ancient poets hinted at this production of springs to us under the riddle of a fable, when they imagined that Pan, into rain, into a river, into a spring, into fire, into lightning and thunder he was said to transform himself.

Side Margin - [What “Pan” is for the ancients]

But this Pan can be nothing other than the spirit of the universe and the mercury of life, which, diffused through the whole mass of the elements, stirs and moves that whole mass and arouses the production of all things within the elements. Therefore Pan is said to produce all things, and truly they draw their origin from him; whence there is no doubt that springs also take their origin from him, since in the series of things nothing is found besides this spirit of the world and of nature, the author of all generations. For the elements by themselves produce nothing, unless they are actuated and informed by that motive force of the whole of nature which must be distinguished from the very forms of the elements as we discuss at length in our Panchymicus, soon to be published.

Side Margin - [The spirit of nature produces springs]

This is that spirit of nature which brings forth springs out of the matter of the elements. At the very outburst and beginning of a spring nothing is found except hard flint or hollow rocks, where that universal spirit mingles the elements and sets them in motion for the generation of the spring, as if in a womb and in a special place suited to this generation. For flint and rocks cannot produce springs, since their nature is unlike and discordant with that of a spring. But that spirit alone, which penetrates the whole earth and there is sown as seed.

The common nature by which all things are is, in general, changed; and that seed must be watery rather than fiery, airy, or earthy. Hence, since the earth is the matrix and womb of that seed, it is everywhere pregnant and swelling with that semen; but where that watery principle is lacking, barrenness and sterility are found. Nor can we regard any soil as fertile unless it is swollen with moisture.

Now that moisture by which the earth swells to produce, nourish, and preserve all things is not simple, elementary water, but the spirit of the universe, which before natural generations and productions begin is transformed into a vaporous moisture, as we clearly observe in the productions of all things themselves, whose seeds and first beginnings are rather watery than fiery, airy, or earthy. For this reason all the ancient philosophers made water the principle of all things, because that universal spirit, diffused through every joint of nature and stirring the whole mass of nature, assumes an aqueous disposition; and the microcosmic spirits are truly vaporous and aqueous.

Let us therefore conclude that all springs and water-sources come forth and flow not from the sea, nor from the air, nor from any other natural thing, but from that spirit alone which produces all vapors and exhalations out of which, each day, rain, dew, snow, and hail are made for watering the earth, so that it may be irrigated and the springs would be supplied, as though moistened inwardly and within, lest it waste away [waters] which have their origin from the dissolution of the sea by central heat.”

Whence the power and the property of springs arise
Chapter 4

Almost everyone believes, and holds it quite settled, that the properties and virtues of springs come from a mixture and infusion of things that are mingled with the waters which make up the springs: for example, that springs which run through iron mines take on the character of iron; those that lick vitriol, or those of salt, or that pass by the workings of gold and silver and the deeper, hidden places where such things are generated, take on the nature and property of those things.

Thus they suppose that springs have no other virtue than that of the substances which are actually and substantially mixed with the waters of the springs; and that the whole power of springs depends on minerals and metallic matters which are born in the innermost bowels of the earth.

We, however, will investigate the nature of springs more deeply, and inquire more fully into their power, than to derive it solely from that mineral mixture for if that were so, by a true and easy method it could be extracted and separated by chemical art from the waters of the springs.

Yet none of the chemists has thus far been able to attain this separation; for when waters however skillfully distilled from certain springs that are, as it were, of inexhaustible virtues are distilled, nothing is found at the bottom of the distillation except slime and a certain coarse earth, thick and feculent, of no power or efficacy. But whatever power there is in the spring passes over with the distilled water and is evaporated together with the water itself, which has been carried upward by the heat of distillation whereas the outcome would be quite otherwise if the powers of springs depended on minerals. For all minerals, since they have earthy and dry parts, have their fixed parts so firm and constant that they cannot be evaporated by any violence of fire, as is clear from the liquation and fusion of metals and from the calcination of almost all the minerals themselves, which preserve a constant and firm i.e., fixed nature and property in the very midst of fires, however great and strong.

Yet by simple distillation, performed with the lightest and gentlest fire, the whole virtue of the spring evaporates and is borne aloft with the water. This would by no means occur if the virtue of springs depended on a mixture of mineral things; rather, there would be more virtue in the magma and the lees produced by the distillation than in the distilled water itself. For minerals are fixed and have a constant nature especially all the metals, and those minerals that possess the nature of salt which, on that account, would remain at the bottom as their substance, and thus the lees and deposits of the distillations would contain more virtue than the distilled water itself whereas the water alone retains and shows the entire property of the spring.

Hence it is altogether clear what the powers and properties of springs are: they adhere to a substance that is volatile and easily evaporated, since it readily evaporates and is carried upward even without any external fire, by the spring’s own inward and inborn heat; and therefore they belong to a certain fiery and ethereal substance, which is opposed to minerals and to metals, which savor only of an earthly and watery nature contrary to the fiery and ethereal. Whence it is sufficiently certain and plain that the virtues of springs do not depend on a mixture of minerals.

Nevertheless, in certain springs minerals are very often mingled; and in these, minerals mixed with the spring itself are also found, when their water, by distillation or evaporation, is borne upward until the very water is consumed and dried out.

It also very often happens that very many springs are found in which the virtue and property of certain minerals are discovered without any mineral substance at all whose powers are manifest in the water of the spring itself; and by this single mystery of nature very many philosophers are deceived, supposing that a mineral substance in that spring, since its force and property are found in the spring itself by no means considering that the virtues of things can be transplanted without their natural and inborn body.

For example, the virtue of vitriol, of sulphur, of antimony, can be found by transplantation in a plant, in a tree, or in some spring, without the material body of these things by their natural and seminal spirit alone, which readily penetrates the bodies of all things, and for a while clings to those bodies and displays and manifests its powers in them. In such cases we may affirm that the virtues of minerals are present, although their material bodies are absent; for there are present the seminal spirits of the minerals, which contain the most strong and most efficacious properties of the minerals.

But since the powers and properties of springs surpass and outmatch the powers of minerals, and show none of the qualities that savor of minerals, whence shall we say the powers of these springs depend? We have asserted in many places of our works, on the authority of the chemists, that to all substances there is given a certain spirituality, which Aristotle called the entelechy; Plato, the soul of the world; Pythagoras, the spirit of the universe; Vergil, the mind; Zoroaster, the earthly god; Hippocrates, dýnamis (power); Galen, the subtlety of hidden powers which almost all chemists say pervades/occupies the whole world, and they asserted that it fills the whole world, and that from it all generations and corruptions depend; and they taught, in wondrous ways, that the powers of all things flow from this one single spiritual substance.

We too, in this Treatise on Springs together with the very chiefs of the chymical art affirm that the powers and properties of all springs must flow from this same single spiritual substance of the whole universe, and that this alone is the mother and producer of all springs: by this alone they flow forth upon the earth; by this it is that the powers of minerals and metals are manifest in the very waters of springs; by this it is that in certain plants and trees forces shine out, according to the various disposition of this governing principle, which now brings forth these, now those, virtues from its own bosom and grants them, made manifest, to bodies and to their mixtures by the sole power and abundance of seminal spirits, which swell and abound in the general spirit itself. And this general spirit is disposed in various ways according to the natural aim and inborn inclination of the particular spirits.
But these particular spirits are the gifts and inborn powers of the spirit of the universe itself of that same general spirit which we shall very clearly teach and show in the following chapter.

Chapter 5
Whence the virtue of plants and of minerals, which is found in certain springs, arises

It is a marvelous and astonishing secret of nature that there are found springs which possess the virtues of plants and of minerals, though no bodies or material substances of plants or minerals are found in the springs themselves at least none that present themselves to common sense. This sacred and hidden matter of nature has given occasion to inquire whence this virtue, so spiritual and subtle, can be communicated to springs, such that by no chymical art, however refined, it can be separated from the waters themselves so as to become palpable and visible.

Very many of the most weighty philosophers truly testify that the seminal principle of all plants and of minerals is infused into water and sown in it; whence water nourishes all plants and minerals, and when it ceases, all those things perish and come to an end. If that be true and of its truth there is by no means any room for doubt it will likewise be most true that water composes all plants and all minerals, since, according to Aristotle and Hippocrates themselves, things are composed from the same [principles] from which are nourished; and both plants and all minerals are nourished by that liquid which we call “water,” although it is not water, but the seminal principle of plants and minerals only savoring of the moist quality of water and not of its substance.

Since, therefore, this “water” composes and produces plants and minerals, it must possess the virtues of plants and of minerals; for, that it may communicate them to plants and minerals, it is necessary that it first possess them indeed, no one can give what he does not have.

Now it has the virtues and properties of all plants and minerals from that seminal principle which is the spirit of the world, with which the water is impregnated; with which the whole and entire earth is anointed; and which is regarded as the blood of the whole earth. For just as in the microcosm blood is carried through all the parts of the microcosm so as to communicate to all the parts the nutritive and preservative spirit, so too water is carried through all the parts of the earth in order to convey its innate spirit the nourishment of all things to all the things that are in the earth, and thereby to compel them to be composed, nourished, and preserved.

Moreover, all things are composed, nourished, and preserved by that general spirit which is especially present in water, and which contains within itself, eminently, all the virtues, and by which both generations and nourishments and preservations of things may be effected; by its natural and inborn inclination it tends to the form of water whence springs arise, as we said above. And since it depends substantially on such a spirit, if this spirit possesses mineral and vegetable virtues, it must be asserted that springs also possess such virtues from the same spirit. For although in springs the bodies of minerals and plants are not present, it matters nothing, since the virtues and properties of minerals and plants can persist in their spiritual seed a seed which we affirm to be present in, and found with, very many springs.

Hence it is very often seen that this seed takes on a true and real body its own proper and inborn [body] in the very flow of the spring. From this we observe new plants and new minerals to arise and be produced in the very midst of the springs, which previously were not present. The reason is plain: the seed of these things, which was invisible and hidden in the water of the spring itself, with the passage of time gradually receives and puts on its body; for the seed of each thing, of its own accord and by its nature, tends to be brought into a material body, so that it may endure more firmly and last in the series of things.

Thus many veins (mineral lodes) are discovered in little cavities of the earth and in deep flinty caves and become manifest, which yet were not there before, nor did any rudiment of them appear there was only simple water occupied those cavities; which, with the lapse of time and by an internal “cooking,” the stars themselves providing the motions, there was made a mine or vein of some mineral, according to the spiritual or seminal virtue that was in the water itself. We shall treat this much more clearly when we inquire into particular springs.

Let us conclude, therefore, that the mineral and the vegetable virtue which we so very often marvel at in springs depends on the universal spirit, which is found in all springs. And if in all springs this virtue does not appear and become manifest although it is always present in that universal spirit, and that spirit is present to all springs the reason is that this virtue cannot be brought into act in every spring, since there are other [virtues] more powerful which keep this one hidden in the bosom of the spirit itself and in silence, until that virtue and power withdraws and passes away, and another hidden one rises and becomes manifest. And thus the generation of one is the corruption of another, in the very body of the general spirit.

Nor is it surprising that this mineral and vegetable virtue found in springs is more powerful and more efficacious than in the very minerals themselves; for in springs this virtue is spiritual and seminal, whereas in minerals it is bodily and wholly material. Moreover, the seed and the spirit of the seed has a more powerful energy of acting than the body produced from the seed itself; for the whole of the seed’s, the virtue, as it were, is shut up in the body like in a prison lest it perish; but in the seed it is free from every bond, and it acts on all sides, and its powers shine forth everywhere in great abundance.

We ought far less to marvel that in springs this mineral and vegetative nature and energy are found, since we discover the same even in the very air itself. For upon the highest pinnacles of towers many plants and flowers spring up, without any visible seed having been carried there; and with rains and thunder it is most certain that metals and stones fall down upon the earth which could not happen unless this mineral and vegetable virtue were scattered everywhere throughout the whole circuit of nature by that general spirit which stirs the whole mass of nature and everywhere attempts generations and productions, moving what place is disposed and fit until it finds one suited to this or that production.

Now the spirit itself disposes the place by its innate and connatural power; indeed, very often the substance of the spirit itself is for itself the very matrix/place in which generations and productions of things shine forth from the very midst of the substance of the general spirit, with no regard to any matrix or locality for in any place whatsoever the productions of minerals and plants can very often be aroused, as our own experience shows clearly and manifestly.

Chapter 6
Whence that animal virtue found in springs which turns the leaves of trees into birds depends

Very many historians assert that there are springs and streams in whose channels, if the leaves of trees and plants that grow there near their banks fall, they are changed into birds; some consider this a fable. But since I have not seen this wonder of nature with my own eyes, I cannot affirm it as an eyewitness; nevertheless that it can happen can be proved by many reasons, besides the authority of all those who sail to the Orkney Islands, the islands of Scotland toward the north. In these islands, they say they have seen a spring and a stream into whose channel, if the leaves of the trees on the banks of that river fall, they become birds that imitate the nature of living creatures.

Many laugh at this marvel of nature and cannot believe it. Yet every year, in the springtime, it happens everywhere: for from the flowers of scabious, and from the leaves of almost all other plants, when they fall and, moistened by the dew, putrefy, from that putrefaction butterflies arise of various colors according to the various diversity of the flowers that in the meadows they rot in the moist liquid of the dew, which alters those flowers and leaves and changes them into butterflies truly living creatures which can be placed in the class and number of winged beings.

Nor do we marvel at beetles and cantharides; yet these are generated from the dung of cattle which is nothing other than the recrement of the plants that the oxen have eaten whereas the latter (the cantharides) are produced from the leaves of the ash. These animals are truly generated from the leaves of trees; and because in our regions this happens almost every year, we do not marvel at such transformations, since they are wont to occur in our lands for the very same reason as in the Orkney islands, though from the leaves of trees and plants birds are not produced so large as in those islands. Variety and diversity, however, do not so increase that marvel of nature that it could not easily be believed.

If I knew the names and kinds of the trees and plants, and the species of birds that are generated from them in those islands, without doubt I should find the greatest sympathy between those birds and those plants, and by what reasoning from the death and putrefaction of those birds there come to be the trees which adorn those banks of this spring with greening leaves; for when those birds rot and die, all their matter is resolved into dust, which is easily impregnated with the vegetative [principle] of those tre [unclear word], by the mediation of the spirit of those [birds/plants], the water which swells with this spirit readily brings forth those trees; and then, when these decay, the matter of those trees can likewise, with equal ease, be impregnated with the animal spirit of those birds. And thus again from those trees birds are made; the turns being repeated in succession, now birds, now trees come to be.

There a peculiar influence of heaven is present, disposing that matter in such a way by its universal spirit, which stirs and moves these metamorphoses. Hence we judge there is by no means any room for doubt that this marvel of nature is possible in those islands, and that it happens by the beneficence of the general spirit of the whole of nature, which in that place disposes the rotting matter of the trees in a special way to receive the form of those birds introducing the spirits of those birds into that very same matter by the same general spirit, which brings in these spirits as far more perfect than the spirits of the trees.

Now matter strives after a more noble form, and therefore it inclines to putrefaction, so that it may change the form it has and find another in which, being newly introduced, it may rejoice for a while. At last, however, it seems to grow weary even of that form; whereupon by putrefaction it casts it off and, by generation, puts on another new form that increases; and thus, by repeated alternations, it is informed and actuated with various forms, through the favor of the spirit of the universe, which alone stirs and moves those changes in matter.

Let us therefore conclude that that animal faculty which we observe in certain springs (in which whatever of a living tree or plant falls is changed and passes over into the kind of birds) comes to be and depends on that universal spirit of the whole of nature, which, by dissolving and putrefying this vegetative matter, specially disposes it to receive the form of birds, introducing into this very matter the particular dispositions of the form of that bird, as was said above.

CHAPTER 7
Whence poison arises in poisonous springs

No one marvels, but almost all make light of the poison that is found in springs, nor do they care to know whence its springing-forth proceeds. Yet investigators of nature’s secrets ought greatly to wonder that poison is found in springs since springs are those that communicate to us and to universal nature more of the vital spirit than the other parts of the world which we call the elements. And still, that poison should be found in these springs is very wondrous, since that good and evil gush from the same source is nature’s highest secret.

It cannot be that from this very same element which gives life to us and to other things imparts life, it also imparts death; and into this very liquid element there was, as it were, poured Pandora’s box, and the vessels of good and of evil that stood at Jove’s side were diffused into this liquid element. For it is most true that the life by which we live and by which every creature lives has been infused into it and this life is truly the natural good; and it is certain that in this same element death is also present, which indeed is the greatest evil in the nature of things. Thus we see and experience that those vessels of good and evil which stood beside Jove have been poured out into springs. By what manner life descends the heavenly rays bear witness to us; by what peculiar way death is introduced must be investigated more deeply.

I have seen springs in the Pyrenees themselves and in many other places which, by drinking of them alone, bring on intermittent fevers; others that bring on death itself; others that produce very great diseases that are difficult to cure. But whence does this poison and that morbid quality well up in springs? Not from the elements, not from the entelechy (that is, the spirit of the world), not from prime matter, nor from its general form can it have its origin; for all these procure life for us and, as being contrary to life, extinguish poison. What, then, is there in the nature of things that produces that poison? The excrement of nature this is the source and spring of such poison, whatever kind it be, which from this single and unique fountain, we affirm that these natural excrements, when they are present in the inmost parts of all nature, disturb even natural life and wage perpetual war against it, as if they were inward and intestinal enemies. From this arise all the kinds of poisons and the sorts of diseases, according to the variety of excrements that are found in the various kinds of natural things.

And since those kinds are various, various and distinct excrements are found as well material or bodily ones, and spiritual or fine and subtle ones which vitiate and contaminate the universal life of the whole of nature, that is, that matter and substance by which life-bearing Nature produces life. And these are all realgars, arsenicals, and orpiments both spiritual and bodily which can all be introduced into our liquid, the water of springs, and be truly mixed with it, since the poisonous spirits of natural excrements penetrate and permeate the whole of nature and defile certain springs with their deadly spirits.

Yet they do not defile all springs, because that deadly spirit is scant and weak in some places, and very often it is not deadly, though it is excrementitious; for not every excrement, by reason of being an excrement, is deadly, but by reason of a lack of vital light which, by its own substance, corrects every poisonous force and, as much as it can, contributes to the vital faculties, whence there are many excrements that have no poisonous force, because, by reason of the vital light with which they are urged, they cannot possess that venomous power since the substance of life, which is that most luminous spirit, always corrects and blunts it, so that it cannot exercise its force; as we have very fully proved in our Olympic Spagyric and in our Panchymic.

Let us therefore conclude that every poison morbid and deadly which is found in certain springs arises from spiritual and bodily poisonous substances that come from the excrements of nature. Nature indeed, in her pure substance, is wholly vital and tends toward life; but the excrement of nature belongs to death, whence it can induce poisonous qualities and faculties, if that light of life be wholly separated from the excrement itself. Then for a time that excrement is a poison of nature. And since within the earth metals and minerals are generated and produced which swell with the very greatest excrements, since the earth is, as it were, the greatest excrement of the prime mass those things that are in the earth, and among the excrements that are the middle portion of the whole of nature, cannot be so cleansed of the necessary excrements that there do not still remain very many excrements of that first mass, which must exert their force a force which, since it cannot be vital, must be of death.

Thus springs, when they are produced in the midst of the caverns of the earth can oppose that excremental spirit and draw off its poisonous power, until the heat of life, or light, by its own faculty and energy conquers and expels that excrement or at least keeps it under, so that it cannot put forth its strength. But in certain springs it is found in abundance and strong, and accordingly it exerts its powers; and poisonous springs are found, especially in those places where nature’s poison that is, the excrement cannot be overcome or tamed by the spirit of light, which in its whole substance is its enemy and adversary.

CHAPTER 8
Whence nourishment and life’s appetite arise in springs

If, in the series of things, poisonous springs are very few, there are almost countless ones that pour forth nourishment and life. Whence we may wisely argue that good is found in nature far more powerful than evil itself; and that the excrement arising from sin is far less than the pure [good] that sprouts from the goodness of nature: hence evil is always less than good clear and most certain evidence that nature, although it was cursed because of the sin of the first man, has nevertheless not from the curse received only so much evil; rather, the good which was innate to it from creation was greater and more powerful than the evil that supervened by reason of sin. Our daily experience bears witness to this and makes it certain, from the infinite number of foods which God has provided for sustaining our life foods which, as good things, exceed in number and quantity all the poisons that are in nature. And these poisons are not there as things wholly evil, but so that they may draw to themselves the venomous spirits and the fine, subtle substances of poisons that are scattered through all the elements of nature, lest what in the elements is destined for life and nourishment be infected by those venomous spirits. Thus even poisons themselves are for our benefit and use, and in a certain respect are reckoned good: for that attraction of poisons, whereby the mass of the elements is purified, is for us the highest natural good; otherwise we could not live safely and pleasantly.

The evil that remains in nature is so very little that it can in no way be equated with the good; for the good is infinite and has its origin from an infinite spring and source. Hence the good things of nature outweigh its evils and surpass them in number.

That nutritive and nourishing faculty which is found in springs clearly bears witness to this; for by it all plants and minerals live indeed, even animals; for the faculty and power, or vital energy, which is in the other elements is not so powerful or so apt for nourishing as the very faculty of living water. For in the remaining elements it is either too subtle or too gross: the subtle cannot endure concoction, but must evaporate before it can be converted into ultimate nourishment; the gross cannot be thinned so as to be cooked to the condition required for nourishment. Water alone remains, which is the middle element, having neither excessive subtlety nor excessive grossness, but altogether a mean, so that it can undergo concoction and receive the conditions and qualities of ultimate food.

This watery element, from itself, has nothing of nourishment and life; and yet it is full of nourishment and life. But this nourishment and life that are infused into water and into the liquor of springs flow from the same and common gushing source namely from the very vital substance of the universal world which alone has its origin from the Light that God, in the beginning of creation, poured into the first mass of the elements, as the universal form of that first mass. And this universal form alone is nourishing, and it gives life to the individual things that are composed and come to be.

That light, infused by God into prime matter, alone supplies life and nourishment to all things this is manifest and clear. That the innate heat and the prime moisture is nourishment for all things, and the formal substance by which life is cherished. But that innate heat and that prime moisture which in the substance of the thing are one and the same are that created light; for that heat is a fire not burning, but shining and enlightening, according to the common opinion and reasoning of the philosophers. Therefore it is light itself since light is a fire and it shines and illumines all things by no means burning, but preserving and nourishing; and accordingly nourishment and life depend on that light and have their origin from it indeed, it is the very light itself, which is poured in a particular mode into all things, and, being with individuals, is itself individual and particular, putting off the general form while it puts on a particular one. And just as prime matter is present in all things and, in individuals, lays aside the character of prime matter and becomes particular and individual, so too that general form, together with prime matter, is present everywhere; yet it becomes particular and individual along with the matter itself in all individual things.

Thus this light, diffused everywhere and especially in our watery element itself where the body takes on a watery and liquid state for the usefulness and convenience of nature, so that it may more easily undergo all digestions and concoctions assumes the qualities and conditions of well-nigh infinite kinds of nourishment, which the whole of nature requires, in order that its mixtures and its varied and countless composites be preserved. And so that this might be done more easily and conveniently, God established in nature itself a perennial fountain of light, and called it the Sun, in order that the natural light diffused everywhere might always be supplied from this perennial source of light, and never fail neither in the general parts of the world (which are the elements) nor in the particular parts (which are the mixed and composite things of individuals). Thus the whole and entire world is filled with light and with a natural life that is perpetual and unfailing. This light we have elsewhere in our works called by other names the spirit and soul of the world, mercury, sulphur, and the salt of life itself, the vital balsam, and many other names not to change its substance or make it various and different, but to point out its various affections and operations, which are manifold and almost without number. For the light of life soul and form cannot be the life, soul, and form of all things without undergoing many affections, since the life, soul, and form of things in all individual things have the greatest possible variety.

Let us conclude, therefore, that the nourisher and supporter of life which is found in almost all springs and is communicated to every watery element depends on light alone, which is mingled with water and united to it by a true union, according to the law and rule of mixture; whence there arises in the water an innate heat, and, as it were, the very body of the water is nourishing and nutritive as experience itself shows it must have this from its innate heat; and since that heat is light, as has been proved, it follows that the natural light (which is present in all springs and constitutes their innate heat) supplies nourishment and the nutritive power to all things. For whatever gives being also gives its virtues and properties. Now it gives being to springs when it gathers into one the whole moist virtue of the water that exists invisibly in the earth; and when that virtue has been thus contracted into one, the springs rise and gush forth, as has been proved above.

CHAPTER 9
Whence medicinal power arises in springs

It is a marvelous and hidden sacred thing of nature that in almost every province of the earth and nearly every climate there are springs whose powers and properties excel in curing all diseases. The Creator God, to show His boundless grace and love toward human beings alone, not only made countless animals, plants and trees, and innumerable minerals for guarding and preserving human health and for restoring it when lost, but also willed that there be springs which by their continual flow and bubbling, might pour out health by day and by night, so that we might taste their perennial, never-ceasing springs of love toward us.

Very many philosophers, both ancient and recent, have admired and sampled that power and energy for curing all diseases which is in springs. But they did not know how to inquire whence it has its origin. Many of them, indeed almost all, say that this very energy depends on minerals and metallic things which they assert are mixed with the waters of springs. Yet with all respect they are mistaken: they have been deceived and, as it were, entrapped by certain false conjectures. For although a spring may be found with some sulphurous odor and with acidity, it is not therefore to be asserted that this spring [contains] a sulphurous body or the substance of vitriol; for whatever is dry and smells of sulphur and mephitis does not derive its origin from common, ordinary sulphur and vitriol.

For common, saleable sulphur and vitriol do not impart these qualities to the whole of nature; rather, sulphur and vitriol, and all the other things that possess such qualities, have received them from the very principles and elements of nature (which are gathered in the spirit of the world and in the entelechy and contracted into one). And these principles and the elements of nature, in generating mixed bodies, produce and bring forth these qualities and other similar [qualities]; but not sulphur and vitriol themselves for they do not have these qualities from themselves, but from the very principles of nature.

It would accord better with reason to say that the purgative virtue of rhubarb depends on, and draws its origin from, another mixture of nature in which that purgative force is found. I certainly cannot assert that rhubarb purges because it has a juice and liquor very like that of celandine; this is quite ridiculous, since rhubarb and celandine each have their own virtues and energies not from themselves, but from the first principles of nature, which, in the production of rhubarb and of celandine, made and stirred up these qualities and energies in rhubarb and in celandine.

Thus must we reason about springs: while they are produced in the little cavities of the earth, they receive various and diverse qualities from the very principles of nature themselves from those same principles from which they are generated according to a varying order and in the different manner which nature uses for producing springs.
Nevertheless, it is not to be denied that springs are found in which sulphur and vitriol are present substantially namely, that in their bubbling up true sulphur and vitriol are produced by those very principles of nature by which sulphur and vitriol are produced; the water of these springs turns black if galls reduced to powder are thrown into the water of the spring itself, which [shows that] vitriol.

I can also, with good reason, assert that many indeed very many springs contain within them the powers and faculties of minerals and metals, although they contain no minerals or metals, but only the spirits of minerals and metals. These spirits do not arise from the minerals and metals themselves, but from that single principle of the whole of nature which nature uses to produce all things. This principle alone has produced, in these springs, mineral and metallic spirits without any mineral or metallic body being produced.

For the principle of minerals and metals since it is that spirit of light united with the very water and mingled with it by a true commixture from this and from the water there is made the true seed of all metals and minerals; whence all springs possess mineral and also metallic virtues, since they consist of the water and that spirit, from which alone the mineral and metallic seed is made. And since in every water there is a mineral seed, every water will also possess mineral virtues; for every water produces mud or sand, which draw their origin from a mineral seed. But this particular seed has its origin from the general seed; therefore whatever properties springs have must be said to depend on that general spirit, rather than on some particular seed produced within the springs themselves by that general [spirit].

Indeed, to the first natural cause everything must be remitted and attributed rather than to the secondary natural causes, which, being particular, concur only in a particular way with particulars. But that general cause of ours concurs generally with all particular causes; whence it is just as much a cause as a particular cause is, since together with it (the particular cause) it concurs in producing particular effects.

Let us therefore conclude that the medicinal virtue which is present in very many springs depends on the general spirit of the world and that general entelechy of the whole of nature which everywhere and in every place stirs and rouses the whole of nature to the generations and productions of all things. This is that spirit of heavenly origin, since it is the true portion of created light which moves and impels the heaven and the remaining elements and whatever is in them, so as to aid nature in her eagerness and striving. This spirit, while it brings forth springs, also produces together with them all their medicinal virtues, without any material or gross body compounded in the waters of the springs.

This nearly all physicians cannot believe, nor even imagine; instead they refer this cause to a mixture of minerals and metals, which are very often found in these springs. But if, with a fair balance of mind, they were to weigh my opinion and judgment, they would find that this alone accords with the truth, they will taste it, when they perceive that the very nature of mineral and metallic virtues is a producer in waters rather than in any other of the elements. For antimony, quicksilver, vitriol, sulphur, salt, all marcasites, and all metals were water rather than metals and minerals; and accordingly all their virtues and properties were implanted and fixed in the water itself rather than in the bodies of mineral things bodies which, by the slow concoction of their own celestial heat (which is the essence of the aforesaid spirit), were hardened and coagulated within the very streams of waters.

It is a greatest error to ascribe power and energy to the effect first and to grant them to it rather than to the cause of those effects; for if an effect has any virtue, it must have it from its own cause. Therefore, if springs have mineral and metallic virtue, they do not have it from the metals themselves but from the causes of the metals, which generate mineral and metallic virtues in the waters themselves as experience itself proves. For we experience in certain springs the virtues of vitriol, sulphur, mercury, and antimony, and yet we find no vitriol, sulphur, mercury, or antimony in the spring itself.

CHAPTER 10
Whence springs burn and are perpetually ignited

In this chapter nature herself seems to refute almost all philosophers and convict them of falsehood, since she herself shows that contraries can persist in one and the same subject by no means broken or constrained, but both very strong and adorned with their highest qualities. Water and fire, which are most opposed, persist in one and the same spring; then they unite and flow forth together from the spring.

Nevertheless, although to sight and ocular experience it appears to be one and the same subject, yet in reality the springs themselves are heterogeneous and are composed of diverse parts and many-kinded essences: namely, of a liquid that is moist and watery, and of an oily liquid camphorated, sulphurous, and the spirit of naphtha and of another subtle substance, fatty, earthy, and watery, which readily takes flame and fire because of the violence of the heat that is very often found in subterranean caverns.

This heat indeed so warms these earthly greases that they take fire and conceive flame, and thus they flow together with the boiling water; as may be seen in many places in the Pyrenees, and especially near the place and city Aquensis, in the vulgar tongue called Acqs, where and in many other neighboring places very great quantities of these earth-greases are shut in and concealed by the ground, and then burst out with great force and with fire, because of the quantity of sulphur and bitumen that is produced there and takes flame; and, as its own fire breaks forth, it burns and consumes whole cities.

These sulphurous and bituminous fires, then, heat those springs (which are there) and make them boil; and the vapors and more subtle exhalations of these earthy greases, which are borne upward by that very fire, when they reach the open air are set aflame. For when something oily and fatty boils up, unless abundant free air is present it does not take flame; but when free and plentiful air arrives, flame is immediately present, which is nourished by the air; but with the air shut off it is extinguished. And those sulphureous vapors and exhalations then are no longer flame, but “flowers of sulphur,” very subtle and ethereal, which are gathered here and there all around upon the stones.

There also appear in the springs themselves greases and certain oils floating on the surface of the spring-water a sign to us that these springs burn and take fire from these fired and ignited substances which flow out together with the spring.

These springs are of the greatest virtues for curing almost countless diseases. For we see and experience in the springs themselves the subtler and ethereal parts of sulphur and bitumen and of other earthly greases, and they constitute a kind of petroleum, than which nothing in nature is found more efficacious for strengthening the muscles, nerves, and tendons. For the innate heat of all the members is cherished and strengthened by that spirit of petroleum; whence all viscous humors are thinned, the harsh, biting ones are moderated and sweetened, and thus arthritides, spasms, paralysis, and other similar diseases are cured. It only remains that the very violent heat and ardor of the spring itself be tempered and moderated by building baths at some distance from the spring, to which the water, led by a little channel, becomes cooler; and thus a tepid and moderate bath, suited to the wish and pleasure of physicians, is established most efficacious for curing all these diseases.

Very many similar springs are present in various provinces of Gaul; but because of the lack of physicians to extol these springs and to test what power their waters have for curing diseases, they become entirely neglected and disparaged which is a very great disadvantage to the sick, for whose healing Nature herself, and God, have appointed those natural pools; yet, when man fails who should lead the sick themselves into those pools to send them; the sick themselves are forced to languish and suffer illness.

Let us therefore conclude that burning springs are of this sort: they arise from the subtler parts of sulphur, bitumen, and similar earthly greases, which are generated in the bowels of the earth by the general spirit of the whole of nature in a manner not unlike what happens in plants and animals, from whose greases petroleum flows, and from which sulphur, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, amber (that is, karabe), and jet have their origin, along with many other things that contain a fatty and unctuous substance produced by the spirit, the author of all things, proceeding from its innate heat and its mercury, and producing these combustible and fiery substances. When these take fire and conceive flame from subterranean heat, they burst forth together with the waters and thus make burning springs, which flow with perpetual flame and with water to the astonishment of certain people who are unwilling to search out these hidden causes and think it beneath them to know them.

CHAPTER 11
On springs that undergo reciprocal tides, like the Ocean

There are many springs in many places that undergo those reciprocal “tides.” One is found in the Pyrenean woodland, in the district called Belesta in the common and vernacular tongue; another in Poitiers country (Poitou), around the place and hamlet de la Godinière, near the house of the Seigneur du Chastelier. There is also a little brook near the city called Saumur, on the banks of the Loire, in the very parish commonly called Varins, in which that stream or brook undergoes reciprocal tides at midday itself, by the hour. And there are many other springs that experience similar tides at different seasons of the year. Many philosophers have sought out and investigated the causes of this tide. Very many have attributed the cause to the Moon, many to the Ocean; but all are mistaken. For that reciprocal tide can have its origin neither from the moon nor from the sea: not from the moon, because not all springs have that tide, even though they lie in the very same place, climate, and province under the same sky and constellations, whose aspect and influence would lead all similar agents to produce similar effects in similar subjects and would dispose them to similar motions and actions; nor can it come from the sea, since these springs do not have tides like the sea, but in every respect different and various. For the movements and “tides” of these springs do not observe the same period: some are hourly, others night-time, others day-time, and others occur only at noon and subside at the same time. But the sea does not have such tides: it has them every day, in winter and summer, in autumn and spring, and they are increased only at full moon and at the solstices and equinoxes, because the efficient cause of this tide is stronger and more powerful at those times, as we shall prove below.

This question is most great and hard to judge witness Aristotle himself, who, although he was reckoned the greatest of philosophers, the genius and daemon of nature, nevertheless could not grasp these tides. Indeed, it is said that, since he could not grasp them, he threw himself into the Ocean and said: “Since I cannot grasp you, you shall grasp me.” Aristotle was seized by the Ocean, since Aristotle could not seize the Ocean.

Therefore this difficulty is very great; nonetheless, although I am the least of philosophers and far inferior to Aristotle himself, I shall say what I think and from whence the springs I shall set forth, as briefly as I can, the cause of the springs’ ebb and flow. I think and I testify it to be the truth that springs “tide” (swell and subside) and are driven with various reciprocal motions at various times by the very spirit of the world itself, which produces the springs themselves and works these motions in those springs. For that which gives being also gives all the other things that pertain to being; and that the spirit of the world gives being to springs was shown very clearly above; therefore it is necessary that their properties and all their virtues also depend on it.

And if not all springs “tide,” although all are made by that same Spirit, the reason is ready at hand: the Spirit itself does not communicate all its properties and energies to all springs; rather it gives one property to this spring, another to that, and thus springs become diverse and various, although they arise from one and the same general cause diverse dispositions being introduced in various places, which change and diversify all things, and even modify the general cause into a particular one in the very particular place, which, like a womb and matrix of that seed, by its own particular motion sets that seed in motion and disposes it to beget this particular spring. For, as we said above, this Spirit has the properties of all things whatsoever, although in all things all the properties are not thrust forth and made to shine; for all individual things have their individual virtues from a particular womb and matrix, which has produced individuals.

Thus we must reason about springs: not all have the same property, since they are not begotten in one and the same place, or womb. All men are produced from one and the same specific human seed; but when that specific seed is varied in various wombs, it brings forth men various and diverse, altogether unlike in every respect. So too the specific seed of springs is varied in various places in such a way that it produces springs entirely diverse; and the diversity arises from their different intrinsic motions, which the Spirit itself, from its own bosom, excites since it is the principle of motion of the whole of nature. For all philosophers think, and rightly judge, that native heat is the principle of motion; but that native heat is nothing other than the light created by God and infused into the elements, so that in them it might be the principle of motion and of rest. Now this light, the principle of vital heat, is nothing other than the spirit of the world and the soul of nature; this is the principle of action in nature.

From this we can easily gather the following: bodies, although indeed full of life, are not moved nor in any way act without that native heat by which they are stirred; and that native heat is not distinguished from the spirit and soul of natural bodies; nor is that soul and spirit distinguished from that created light, which is hidden and mingled with the elements that compose those natural bodies, which the light shines and sparkles in the bodies themselves while they live and persist in their natural being; but after death it is extinguished. Hence we properly say (to indicate the death of things) that “life has been extinguished” which would be improper speech if life were not light; for what is extinguished has the character of light and of fire.

Therefore, since life is light, and that light is not distinguished from native and vital heat, we must argue that, since the principle of motion depends on native heat, it also depends on that light which we call vital heat. And since the reciprocal tide is a motion in springs, it must be judged to depend on the universal principle of motion of the whole of nature and since that principle is that light created by God and infused into the mass of the elements, it is most true that the reciprocal tide which certain springs undergo depends on that very same light which made these springs and in them became the native heat of the springs and the principle of their motion. This [native heat] now waxes, now wanes in these springs, according to the stars which strengthen or weaken that principle in keeping with their nature. For that inner light, which is the principle of motion of each thing, is governed and ruled by the higher light as by its father and by the general cause; and whenever the higher light flourishes, the lower has stronger powers.

Hence springs have stronger tides at one time than at another since the higher Light is more vigorous at one time than at another; from this Light the internal light of the springs is cherished and increased, as by its general cause, which by its presence and its vigor keeps its effects livelier and more powerful.

CHAPTER 12
On springs that pour forth petroleum

So that we may fully satisfy inquisitive minds about the nature of these springs, we must explain what oil is, and whether a substance of this sort can be found in the very midst of the earth among the minerals and all the things that arise from the ground, just as it is found among plants and animals. We therefore assert that oil is the ethereal substance of the world’s mercury, which contains in itself much sulfur, a little mercury, and still less salt; and by reason of the very small amount of salt it is liquid and flowing. But when salt abounds, it is coagulated and condensed, as in suet and the fats of animals, which are coagulated by reason of the abundance of salt.

And if they are distilled in chemical vessels, then in time the salt is separated from the sulfur and the mercury, and it remains at the bottom of the vessel among the dregs and magmata what the chemists call the “dead head.” What then rises by distillation is never again thickened by cold, but remains liquid and flowing; hence it is called oil and the essence of fat and suet. The same thing happens with all gummy, resinous, and turpentine-like liquids: they are thickened by cold; but if they are distilled, what is subtle and ethereal the sulphurous and mercurial part is driven upward, whereas what is of salt seeks the bottom and settles among the magmata. Thus, when separated from the salt, that which mounts upward is no longer frozen by cold, but remains liquid and flowing, and it is called oil and essence.

Since, then, this ethereal substance of sulphur and mercury is found in animals and plants copiously and swelling, the same substance is found most copiously also in minerals: for all kinds of sulphur, bitumen, naphtha, amber of every sort, and petroleums are found in very great abundance in the earth; and by the central and natural heat indeed, and very often by a heat beyond the nature of the earth itself they are distilled and are converted into oil.

It happens sometimes indeed very often where there is an abundance of sulphur, bitumen, jet-stone, and coal, that by a heat beyond the nature of the earth itself these bituminous bodies are set on fire, what is subtle and ethereal tends upward, and in the hollow caverns of the rocks it circulates and is attenuated into an oil which bursts out and makes springs of petroleum (so called by the Italians) not because the oil these springs pour forth is “oil of the stone” or “of the rock,” but because it flows from the rocks and from the little hollows of stones, as from alembics, out of the fat and unctuous substance of the earth, which is sulphureous and bituminous not simple but composite. For simple sulphur, when it is burned and sublimed upward, is not turned into oil and liquid, but into flowers, that is, into solid, ethereal, and subtle substances of sulphur which are called “flowers,” because the salt of sulphur is volatile and, together with the other principles of sulphur, is substantially raised; whence the whole substance of sulphur, without evident change, is sublimed and turned into flowers.

This is proved daily by experience in the Pyrenean mountains, in the thermal baths at the places Dencausse, Barèges, Bagnères, and others, where there are very hot thermal waters from combustible sulphur which burns perpetually in those places and heats the thermal waters and establishes these baths. And when this sulphur burns, it is not changed into liquid, but is transformed into flowers and into fine substances which collect upon the outer moving surface very like these flowers of sulphur, which, in common parlance, are prepared by chemists by sublimation.

This is for us a sure sign that pure and simple sulphur is burning in these places; for if it were compound and joined to bitumen or to jet-stone, or linked with some similar earthly grease, there would flow from it petroleum of the highest and most excellent virtue and efficacy for paralytic affections, comatic states, and numbness of the limbs, and other similar maladies diseases which are very often a reproach to physicians because of their difficult cure, yet which are easily cured, when these liquors are rightly applied; for the subtle and delicate portion of that earthly grease is of the greatest power.

It can also happen and in some places of the earth nature herself brings it about that the greasy part of the universal spirit (which produces sulphurs of every kind) composes itself into an oil with a moderate amount of salt; and with sulphur and a mercurial quality being added, it becomes something liquid and flowing, having the taste, nature, and essence of oil, and smelling of the virtue of sulphur, bitumen, jet, or amber, if, in composing the oil itself, nature has the dissolved substances of those sulphurs. This would be rare and very marvelous, because nature cannot, in a very short time, cook and perfect those natural principles of the prime matter in order to produce that oil; thus, for it to flow continually, there is need of a very long time so that it may cook those principles into petroleum.

Therefore we must rest in our first opinion and judgment and affirm that petroleum springs depend on bituminous and naphtha-like mineral bodies which are scorched in the caverns of the earth; and while they burn, the finer and fattier part is sublimed upward into the hollow chambers of the rocks, and at length coalesces into oil just as in chemical apparatus, where that portion is changed into oil and drips drop by drop. If this takes place in the very caverns of the earth where sulphurs and bituminous bodies are scorched, then from the combustion the fattier part is sublimed into oil; and springs of petroleum are thus constituted, of marvelous virtue and efficacy.

CHAPTER 13
On springs that pour out quicksilver together with their water

We assert and have proved by many arguments in our Compendium of Chemical Secrets written in the French tongue and printed, that water is the mother of all metals and minerals; and in the very chapter on quicksilver we showed that quicksilver itself draw its origin from the very abyss of waters.

Therefore it will not be unreasonable in this chapter, as we investigate springs that pour out quicksilver, to assert that the quicksilver itself is produced together with the very liquor of the spring; nor is it strange that the mother should lead her son with her. For the spirit of the water, being gradually congealed by its own natural heat, mixes its natural salt together with its mercury, that is, with its inborn moisture, while a greater dose and quantity of sulphur predominates; so that the watery moisture, along with its salt, is condensed by that small natural sulphur into mercury, or quicksilver, fluid and liquid yet not moistening. The reason is that the salt and the aqueous moisture are so balanced in equal weight within its composition that the moisture does not moisten, since it is bound in the dry bond of salt; nor, however, is it bound so tightly as to be deprived of motion, but only so moderately dried that it does not moisten. Indeed, moisture can be bound and dried in such a way that it does not moisten, and yet is not deprived of its natural motion as is evident in metals, which, when they are melted in fire, are liquid and flow like water, yet do not moisten.

But the spirit of water, which is the principle and origin of quicksilver, can very easily be coagulated and condensed into quicksilver by the power of its innate and implanted heat that is, of its vital sulphur with cold not required (indeed, even in spite of cold) of the water itself, which in no way can extinguish the natural heat, that is, the sulphur implanted in the very spirit of the water; rather, in the very midst of the waters it produces and brings forth all things and minerals.

For this sulphur is never extinguished in the womb of its mother, nor does a mother ever extinguish her offspring in her own womb; rather, as far as she is able, she warms and nourishes them. Thus the metallic and mineral fetuses and births, since they are from water, are never extinguished or smothered in the water itself, however cold it may be.

And although the water itself the mother and begetter of metals may freeze in its outer parts and be condensed by cold so that it seems almost dead, yet in its innermost parts that sulphur lives in strength; and the more it grows cold, the more and more powerfully it shines, and with its vital hearth it warms and cherishes and nourishes its births and offspring.

And thus that cold, incidentally, promotes and hastens the coagulation of minerals and metals, because the spirit of the water is thereby stronger and more powerful in the water’s inmost parts, so as to speed its births.

Therefore we judge it in no way absurd that at the very head of springs, where the water comes to rest, metals can be formed, and minerals, from the abundant spirit of the water and especially quicksilver, which has a nature not unlike the spirit of the water itself, differing only by a simple and very slight bond of coagulation.

Let us conclude, then, that quicksilver which in certain springs issues forth and flows, is to be held to take its origin from the spirit of the water itself, which produces the spring together with quicksilver; and this spirit, by its vital heat, that is, by the sulphur implanted in it, coagulates its own moisture, i.e. its mercury, and condenses it by the aid of its salt, to which the principle of coagulation has been entrusted. And this salt and mercury are so evenly joined and mingled that they do not hinder one another’s actions; and thus we perceive mercury to be liquid and flowing, yet not moistening, because the moisture is so bound by the dryness of the salt and so vanishes that it cannot moisten or make wet.

And so quicksilver flows from certain springs from the spirit of the spring’s water, which forms the spring and the quicksilver from an equal and well-weighed mixture of salt and mercury. Since such equality of mixture is not found in all springs, therefore mercury is not found in all of them although in all there is found the spirit of water, which could compose quicksilver, if only the proper weight and measure of its salt were found in every spring.

On springs that pour out little flakes of gold and silver
Chapter 14

Many have believed, and many still believe, that the little gold and silver leaflets which certain springs discharge are the scrapings of gold and silver mines; and that these scrapings are eaten away by the very water of the spring, torn off as it were by the current, and flow along together with the water. But if those who credit these fictions had gone into gold and silver mines and seen them, and with their hands had felt the hardness of a gold or silver vein, they would without doubt have cast that trifling notion out of their minds. For metal-bearing lodes are not so friable nor of so loose a structure that they could be softened by the spring itself and torn away, and that those golden and silver filings should be carried along and borne off by its course and flow.

It is not from this source that these gold and silver leaflets issue; the cause must be sought deeper. Since the architectonic spirit of all minerals and metals is abundant and swells in all springs, why should it not be possible that the metals themselves.

The very principles are active within that spirit, and there they are purified to the utmost and made clean and bright; by the inner heat and the inborn sulfur, with salt mediating, the pure and shining mercury is coagulated into a perfect metal into silver or gold, according to the condition of white or of red sulfur. Surely these things can happen in this way, just as sand and talc and other similar matters that arise in watery places are produced from the mineral spirit itself. Talc is produced, and sand of every sort with varied and diverse colors, which bear witness to the variety of sulfur. All these things are brought forth together with the spring by that very mineral spirit, in the manner we said above. Nor are these easier to produce than gold and silver, although they are more plentiful because of the impurity of the material, which in nature is always more abundant than pure material. Hence gold and silver are rarer than stones, because the nature of gold and silver is pure which is always scant and rare but nature, step by step with the passage of time, tends toward that purity and at last attains it; and from that very purity it generates gold and silver and precious stones if salt swells within the material, but metals if the mercury is vigorous and prevails. For from salt abounding and swelling in the mineral spirit, stones are formed, which are varied by the variety of sulfur (for that is the cause of colors); but from mercury in great quantity, and when it predominates, metals are produced, which differ according to the varying purity of the material.

Thus stones are formed in the innermost parts of the water: since they cannot be brought together into a single mass because of the water’s perpetual motion, they become tiny stones that make up sand. In the same way, metals since they cannot be coagulated into one solid, continuous body by the perpetual motion of the water are made into little flakes and leaf-like metal; for as the water flows unceasingly over those pure parts that are congealing, it cannot be frozen into little globules, but is forced to be formed into thin sheets of gold by the water’s attenuating and, as it were, endlessly hammering action. Likewise those tiny stones found among the sand are coagulated into many faces, as if tablet-shaped, because the water by its motion impresses these outer figures and forms.

Let us therefore conclude that the little flakes of gold and silver which in some springs are found among the sands and very small pebbles take their origin and rise from the metallic spirit and the seed of metals found there purified and sublimed to the highest degree among the very sands of the spring where in certain places it is coagulated and fixed into gold and silver by its natural sulfur and by an innate heat that cannot be extinguished by the waters.

Chapter 15
Whence come those springs that swell with mud and are found without any sand

This question, at first glance, seems useless and unprofitable. For what good does it appear to do, to know what the mud and the sand of springs are, and whence they arise? Nevertheless, to know this is of the greatest use; for from a spring’s sand and mud we infer and judge its goodness and its faults.

In the preceding chapters we proved and very clearly showed that the “spirit of the world” is abundant in the element of water, and that in waters themselves it has more vigor than in the other elements of nature, for the convenience and service of all nature. And we showed that this spirit has three distinct substances: salt, sulphur, and mercury. By salt we mean a very dry, vital, and radical substance, the principle of corporealization, if I may so speak, carrying that principle within itself. By sulphur, a substance full of light and of vital heat, or living fire, which contains within itself the principle of motion. By mercury, we mean a substance characterized by moisture, swelling with the radical moisture by which the “sulfur of life,” that is, the vital fire, is cherished and nourished these substances together constitute all springs through the world-spirit; yet in such an order that in some springs the power of sulfur is stronger than in others. Sometimes the power and virtue of mercury prevail; in some others the power of salt has the upper hand.

Those in which the sulfurous virtue predominates are lively, bright, and clear, and possess very many powers. Those, however, in which the energy of salt predominates are indeed clear and limpid, but are not of such great virtue. But those in which the nature of mercury is victorious are turbid, heavy, raw, and full of mud; they burst forth in “fat” (rich, greasy) ground and commonly flow there. Others, again, pour out their waters among stones and marble.

From this one may gather whence mud swells up in springs: it depends on the “mercury of life,” which contains crude and cold excrements, and very fatty and thick ones. Hence mud is produced in waters where the soil is rich and clayey, which draws along from the water itself something sticky and very tenacious something that indeed spoils and contaminates the water.

Thus we see and have verified that all marsh waters are sticky, tenacious, and glutinous; and that all the fish that are nourished in such waters eels, tench, carp, and similar kinds are, as it were, coated with a glue, a tenacious and viscous slime, on account of the excrement of the food by which they are nourished, which is carried to their skin and there produces that viscous slime. But that ‘food’ is nothing else than the spirit of the water itself, in which mercury abounds and swells with its cold and sticky excrements. By the fish’s digestive and separating faculty, while they are nourished by such a spirit, these are separated and deposited upon the skin. For if the water in which such fish live and dwell is swollen with these viscous and glutinous humors, it is necessary that the fish living in that water and animated by its spirit also swell with similar excrements.

From this we may conclude that all springs which abound in mud and in greasy soil take their origin from a fat, excremental, glue-like and tenacious ‘mercury,’ and they possess no notable virtues or powers, because of the marked crudity and coldness present in such waters. They would be far more effective if they contained sand and tiny pebbles; for sand and pebbles bear witness that heat and the ‘sulfur of life,’ together with the life-giving salt, are active in them these being the source and principle of notable virtues.

Chapter 16
How the virtues and faults of springs may be perceived by sight and taste

Those who are well acquainted with the “architectonic spirit” of springs can immediately recognize, by sight and by taste, all the virtues and defects of a spring. For when they see a spring bursting forth from hard flint with a clear and unmistakable force, its water bright and very limpid, carrying shining sand and tiny grains that glitter like little flakes of gold and silver, they may declare the spring excellent and praiseworthy for drinking.

And if its taste is acid yet somewhat sweet, they may further affirm that it possesses many virtues: it is very powerful for removing obstructions, for expelling stones, and for drawing out little gritty particles from the cavities of the kidneys; indeed it is suitable if not to cure, at least to relieve arthritic pains, because through the urine it carries off serous humors that are thick and sticky, humors which are the causes of those diseases. When these are evacuated and purged, the effects of their causes cease.

This spring, moreover, and others of the same kind, bestow / endowed with virtues by an abundance of volatile and fixed spirits (for so one must speak, in chemical terms) of the world’s universal spirit, which brings about this swift and violent movement; and because it abounds in sulphur and in pure metallic mercury, it generates and produces tiny flakes of gold and silver. From clear and pure salt are produced those clean, shining pebbles and grains of sand.

The rest of the water that flows out uncongealed since it is clear and very bright shows and attests the goodness and virtue of the water. But if in springs we observe the exact opposite namely water that is turbid, rising with mud and clay, almost without any motion, and of a sweet yet insipid taste we may say that such a spring has no virtue and possesses very many faults: it is hard to digest, very crude, cold, and heavy, and so produces great crudities and windy eructations in the stomach, generating various and manifold obstructions in the viscera, arising from the crude “mercury” with which it swells and abounds whence all these diseases spring and well up.

Thus we can investigate by taste and by sight all the virtues and faults of springs, from the defect or the excellence of the parts of the world’s general “mercury,” which generates and brings forth all springs. For sulphur, which is the chief part of that general mercury provided it be pure and freed from all sulphurous dregs produces wondrous and excellent Salt comes next; last of all is mercury, which, because of its crude and cold substance hard to be “cooked” within the waters produces no very notable virtues in springs. But the remaining parts that abide in the world-spirit, namely those of sulphur and of salt, possess more of the created light and of the divine power infused into the elements than mercury does, and therefore have more perfection than mercury. For that light created by God is the perfection of the world-spirit and of all things; hence the ancients gave it the noblest name and called it the form of reality.

Now this general spirit of all nature is nothing other than that light and the pure essence of all the elements. The part that swells more and abounds in air, fire, and that light we call sulphur; the part that swells with air and water and that light we call mercury; and the part in which the essence of water and earth prevails we call salt. That God-created light always informs and actuates those parts of the universal spirit and is its true form and soul. Whatever else comes from the elements is only the body and garment of that light.

And thus, clearly and at length, the pupils of the chemical art have explained the nature and essence of the universal spirit, what the universal mercury is, and into what parts which indeed I have never explained so clearly anywhere in my books; I always kept hidden that light of nature created by God and infused into the elements lest the key for laying open all of nature be handed to everyone for that light illumines all the hidden and obscure caverns of the whole of nature.

But now, since I am dealing with springs, I must pour out whatever lies in my inmost self, so that it may flow perpetually like a spring, and all may know and see what Alchemy can do in opening the inmost recesses of nature. These have remained entirely concealed and unknown up to this time above all the nature and essence of springs about which no author, ancient or modern, has spoken of these hidden and secret mysteries, as is clear from their writings, where they recount only what in springs is visible and palpable. Of the inner and hidden [things] of springs no one has yet written.

This is what compelled me to compose this little treatise, that everyone might perceive the wondrous and hidden secrets that are in springs. And so that their virtues and faults may become fully known, I conclude and affirm this: one must understand the general spirit of the world, from which all things in the vast field of nature come to be and are generated especially springs; for since they are produced from that very spirit, if the nature of the spirit itself is known, the nature of the spring will also be known.

And so it is very necessary to know that spirit itself and all its parts namely sulfur, mercury, and salt. For upon the sulfur of that universal spirit depend the strong and powerful action of every thing, all color, every motion, and every vital operation. From salt all tastes take their origin, and whatever is perceptible to the touch. From mercury, however, come all generative and productive powers. Thus, in springs where the “sulfur of life” predominates, the powers of sulfur shine out more clearly than in those others where salt and mercury predominate. And so likewise it must be said of those other springs in which salt and mercury predominate: in them the virtues of salt and of mercury are bright and vigorous virtues that can be perceived by sight and by taste, as has been explained above.

On springs whose drinking produces intermittent fevers.
Chapter 17.

Side margin: Intermittent fevers from springs.

Very many springs are found which, by a single draught alone, produce intermittent fevers especially if their waters are drunk on an empty stomach and when the body is heated by violent movement; then their fluid swells and abounds in crude, excrementitious mercury greasy, thick, and muddy which causes great obstructions, hard to dissolve. By these, the humors putrefy outside the vessels, perspiration being hindered; and thus the paroxysms of intermittent fevers are stirred up, according to the kind and species of the humors that are putrefying. For example, if phlegm that pituitous humor which is the liquor of “vital mercury,” crude and undigested putrefies because transpiration is checked by obstruction brought on by copious drinking of that spring’s water, in which that same crude, excrementitious mercury is conspicuous, then a quotidian intermittent fever is produced. And if bile swells up in the drinker, a tertian will arise; and if the melancholic humor prevails in the body, then a quartan will break out and provoke stubborn paroxysms.

Moreover, the water of the spring itself, by reason of its crudity and coldness since it cannot easily be digested by the stomach rouses an intermittent fever; for with its own crude mercury, wherewith it abounds, it is quite powerful and effective in generating intermittent fevers.

But that crude mercury with which springs swell, in certain wet and clayey places, besides its crudity also contains some nitrous, excrementitious sulfur; by its agency it produces, in the spring, a liquor that bears the powers and properties of the melancholic humor, imitating that humor, by whose agency it produces like fevers, together with scabies and other similar cutaneous disfigurements, by which the skin is made scaly and marred.

To cure these, the drink must be changed; or, if other springs cannot be found, their water or liquor must at least be corrected with anise, fennel, and wine. This all who live in marshes are compelled to do, where the drinking water is worst, because their native soil is wet and full of mud suited only to bringing forth grasses and establishing rich meadows so that animals and cattle of every kind grow very fat there; but men, from drinking only that water, fat and swollen with mercurial slime, become elephantiasic unless they change their drink, or at least correct it with the best wine. For wine, by its natural, inborn heat, cooks and digests the crude and undigested liquor of “mercury,” and thus the human stomach is helped, lest it produce and generate crudities and apepsias (indigestions) from that raw drink.

The stomach of cattle and other similar animals, however, has no need of such support and help; for it is stronger and more powerful than the human stomach in cooking these crudities. Hence the beasts grow fat, while men grow thin and dried out from want of nourishment since, being crude and hard to cook, it cannot pass over into substance. Indeed, all foods there are raw and hard to cook [in the stomach] because the waters by which all fruits and animals are nourished and produced are swollen with raw and cold “mercury” and abound in it; nor can this be so corrected in fruits and animals that they do not still retain some trace of that crudity. The human stomach cannot master it without some sparks of that crudity showing themselves, from which arise various peculiar, local diseases.

Let us therefore conclude that the springs which generate intermittent fevers are those distended with crude, cold, undigested “mercury”; and that this very “mercury,” by its own crudity, produces all these fevers, because of the obstructions it causes through its crudity and coldness.

So that hunters, travelers, and wayfarers may avoid and escape this, I advise them not to drink those waters which are seen to issue slowly from ground that is rich, clayey, and full of green slime; for all such springs are cold, and they breed crudities and obstructions, whence intermittent fevers arise. If pressed by great thirst, let them drink only a little water, rinse their mouth, and rest in a shady place; for thirst that comes from bodily exertion is quenched by rest alone. In this way they will look to their health and avoid those fevers to which almost all travelers, hunters, and wayfarers are liable merely from drinking water at an inopportune time.

Of springs that, when drunk, produce a bronchocele (goiter)
Chapter 18

Almost all physicians believe and generally hold it to be true that the bronchocele with which the people of Savoy and of the Pyrenees are wont to be disfigured arises from ice and snow that, at a certain season of the year, have run down into the springs. Not snow, nor ice, nor the water that is poured off and melted from snow and ice brings forth this kind of swelling; rather it is the spirit of salt, congealing and coagulating, with which all the waters and springs of those climates are swollen. Yet it is true that in snow and in ice that coagulating saline spirit is abundant; for when cold presses in and condenses the water, the sulphurous and vital spirits of the water vanish, and the saline spirits remain more plentiful and more powerful. Hence water freezes when it is deprived of its sulphurous and vital spirit; and in water condensed by cold the saline spirits prevail these alone can produce a bronchocele, and they also give rise to serous, watery, and phlegmatic swellings by their coagulating and fixing power they thicken and set around the parts of the throat; there a bronchocele is produced from cold, phlegmatic humors by that saline spirit which, once condensed, is found most abundantly in the water that is drunk.

Accordingly, we need look for no other cause of bronchocele than this coagulating, condensing spirit of salt, which is found copious and swelling in all mountain waters both because of the nature of the place (being rocky, and therefore abounding in the spirit of salt) and because cold, by its violence, drives off and exhausts the sulphurous and vital spirits. Hence that saline spirit which coagulates and fixes is more vigorous in snow and ice than in other waters that are not condensed by cold; for while the spirit of life that is, the sulphurous principle remains strong in the water, it prevents freezing by cold. But when it fades and is expelled by excessive cold, then the water freezes, through the coagulating spirit of salt that thrives in icy water; and thus water is sometimes turned into crystals without any subsequent power of re-liquefaction, because an extreme dryness has been introduced into the water’s moisture by that spirit, which firmly freezes the moisture and truly fixes it into crystal. This, however, cannot happen in snow and ice, because they are easily melted into water by the slightest warmth of the sun for the ultimate, extreme dryness of the saline spirit has not been introduced.

Therefore the spirit of salt, which is found copious and turgid in the waters of Savoy and of the Pyrenees, produces bronchocele. For in the parts of the larynx and throat of the people who dwell there there is found much and abundant phlegm harsh, viscous and tenacious, greasy and gluey especially in women’s bodies, which, being colder than men’s, abound the more in phlegm. And since that phlegm is salty and is charged with an inborn and natural saline spirit which is nourished and increased more and more by the continual drinking of that water, the perennial water that itself swells with the same spirit of salt, thus there arise those scirrhous and edematous tumors about the larynx and parts of the throat which we call bronchoceles. These swellings never pass over into suppuration, because the natural heat, or sulphur of life, is almost extinguished in such tumors, and because salt abounds and is turgent in them, which prevents corruption. For curing and reducing these tumors the spirit of salt mixed with the balsam of sulphur is excellent and powerful.

Indeed, salt cures the very diseases it itself produces and brings about, provided physicians know how to use salt therapeutically; for if the sharpness of salt gives rise to some illnesses, its sweetness cures. If its dryness and its coagulating power produce bronchoceles and scirrhous swellings, its moisture namely its sweet spirit dissolves and disperses those very tumors; and thus from one and the same spring both harm and benefit arise and flow forth.

Whence fresh-water springs are found even in the sea
Chapter 19

It is most true that the earth is the center of the world, toward which all the forces of the whole universe tend and incline, as to the world’s center. Hence the earth is rightly called the mother of all things, and especially of the springs that are produced in her womb fresh and tasteless. Since they are such and arise from the middle of the earth, when they come out from it they meet the sea-water, which is salty, thick, heavy, and viscous; and since they have contrary qualities, they cannot mix. For the waters of springs are fresh, thin, exceedingly subtle and light, and therefore they cannot at once be mingled with the waters of the sea, whence they reach the surface of the sea still fresh fine and light, until at last they are finally mingled by the motion of the sea. Yet the gush of these springs, by its own violent motion, pierces the sea-water and churns it on every side without any mixing, until it comes to the end of its motion; there it finally comes to rest, and in that quiet it is mixed as it is stirred by the sea’s various waves. Thus fresh springs are found in the very middle of the Ocean and of the Mediterranean, in certain places a wonder to all sailors which are born from the land and flow through the middle of the sea without any mixture, because the water of the sea and the water of the spring are contrary and have opposing qualities that resist such commingling. We ought not be greatly surprised at this, since we observe it every day in the river Rhône: its water, being fresh, cannot mix with the Mediterranean Sea, and for many stadia indeed for nearly seven or eight miles the Rhône runs out into the Mediterranean without any mixture, so that fresh water is found in the midst of the Mediterranean and cannot be blended with the sea, because of its thinness and subtlety, which oppose the sea’s thickness and viscosity.

Therefore we must conclude that those fresh-water springs which are found even in the midst of the sea arise from the earth itself, from the spirit of the world, which generates and brings forth those very springs in the earth’s own womb; from there they go out and flow to the surface of the earth; and although the earth joins with the sea, nothing prevents the springs brought forth by the spirit of the world from tending wherever their natural motion inclines. And if they meet the sea, they are forced to flow through the middle of the sea just as through the middle of the land; nor are they therefore mixed, since the waters of the sea are tacky, viscous, heavy, and salty, while the waters of springs are subtle, thin, light, and sweet of contrary quality and hard to mix. Hence for a time those waters remain unmixed, and they flow and move here and there for a while until, stirred by motion, they are at last blended.

From where it happens that salty springs are found inland.
Chapter 20.

There are almost countless springs that pour out salt both along the seashore and far inland, far from the sea itself, in the open country and in the mountains, where springs are found that discharge salt. As for those at the shore, these are in fact from the sea and hardly deserve to be called true springs; rather, they are water of the sea transferred and conveyed into a little spring through the earth’s blind and hidden through pipes and channels; and so they are not true and legitimate springs, since they are not begotten in the earth whereas true springs (and others besides) are begotten by the spirit of the world, as has been said and proved above.

But the salty springs that are found inland springs which come from the spirit of the world and are therefore true springs do not come from the sea, although they are salty; for liquid salt is generated within those very springs by the world-spirit itself, as by their proper efficient and formal cause. Some philosophers cannot allow this, for they suppose all salt to have its origin in the sea and to issue from it; yet that is false and erroneous, since salt can be produced and generated in every place, just as it is generated in the sea. This can be amply shown by the salty springs that gush forth in many localities, and by “mountains of salt,” which are found in the Pyrenees themselves and in many other places.

For the salt that is generated and produced in such places in such abundance and richness that the mine cannot be exhausted cannot arise from the sea, since sea-water does not reach there, neither by hidden nor by obvious and evident channels. It is produced solely by Nature’s power, by means of her generative faculty, which is her spirit, who mixes the elemental matter in those places for the production of salt.

And from this it can be proved that, since here upon the very surface of the earth Nature produces salt, she can also to produce that very same salt in caverns and in the inmost caves of the earth, since Nature is just as powerful on the earth’s surface as in its caverns for the power of Nature is everywhere equal, provided the disposition of the places be the same. Therefore, since Nature produces mountains of salt upon the surface of the earth, she can also produce salt in the inmost caves of the earth from the same matter, by a like agent, and where the places are similarly disposed. But because the inner caves of the earth are damp and moist, the salt is dissolved in that moisture, and thus, together with that moisture, springs of salt are generated and flow to the surface of the earth; for the salt cannot there coagulate into a solid mass, but must necessarily flow as a spring, since by the excessive moisture of the place it is dissolved into the liquid that constitutes the spring.

We know from chemical doctrine that salt is produced in all parts of the world by the world’s natural heat, which, while it acts upon its own moisture, both consumes it for nourishment and is nourished by it, and dries that very moisture; and what is dried out within that natural moisture is natural salt, the radical [principle] of every thing. And if springs, as has been said, are produced by that same natural heat of the world and of nature, it can happen that in certain places that natural heat is so powerful and efficacious that by its action it most strongly dries its material moisture, so that its natural Salt appears thus the Central Salt.

Side Margin - The drying of nature’s moisture produces salt.

And the radical [principle] that is inborn in the spirit of the world and of nature shows itself in certain places, and if it is dissolved by adventitious moisture it gives rise to salty springs. For the drying of the radical moisture by nature’s own heat is the production of salt; that is, it is the action through which salt becomes evident and is brought to light otherwise it would remain invisible within the radical moisture itself. Those who know how to coagulate water by the power of continuous and perpetual heat in a hermetically sealed vessel know as well the truth of this philosophy and, by their very experience, that by steady heat water becomes salt. For the natural heat of the water consumes its continual moisture and, by consuming it, dries it; and in the very drying of that radical moisture the salt at once appears what is natural and radical at the center of every thing and is mingled with the innate heat and moisture of all things.

We therefore conclude that the salty springs which bubble up and flow in various places of the earth do not come from the sea; rather, they are produced and generated by nature’s spirit in the caverns of the earth. When that spirit is strong in certain places and swells with innate heat (or with celestial light), by the force of that heat it most powerfully dries its own moisture so as to be nourished by it; once the moisture is dried, the natural dry [principle] immediately appears namely, natural salt. And when this is then dissolved by the excessive dampness of the neighboring place, or in any other way, external moisture can flow together there for many reasons, and thus dissolve the salt produced there and so form a salty spring.

Whence it is that some springs in winter are stripped of their natural virtue, yet in the other seasons of the year recover that very virtue.
Chapter 21

By an almost palpable sign the earth seems and appears to be stronger and more powerful in winter than in any other season of the year; for by an antiperistasis of the cold, the earth’s natural heat in winter is increased within the earth’s caverns and hollows. It cannot evaporate or be carried upward to the surface of the earth for the purposes and uses of generation and decay that occur upon the surface. And therefore, since that natural warmth of the earth is stronger and more powerful in winter, the springs at that time ought also to possess greater virtue and efficacy than whence it is that springs fall silent in winter, than at any other time, since the principle of the power and property of all springs is then the more potent. This would most certainly be true, if that natural warmth of the earth, while it is active and swelling in the earth’s caverns, were kept there and flowed out together with the springs to the surface of the earth, to which the springs themselves flow. But from the opposite region of the earth, where spring and summer flourish and prevail, that heat the natural warmth of the earth is drawn off by the power of the sun, which warms that whole region of the earth, opens its pores, and draws that natural warmth thither for the nourishment and germination of all the things produced there. By contrast, the cold, by constricting the pores of the ground in the opposite region where winter prevails, drives that innate warmth of the earth toward the region where spring and summer are vigorous. Thus, by the compression caused by cold and the attraction of the vernal and summer heat, that natural warmth tends more and more toward the part of the earth in which spring and summer prevail, and it never remains in the inmost caverns of the earth, but always strives toward the surface, to which it is drawn by the power of the active sun.

Side Margin - The innate heat of the earth is weak in winter.

Therefore that natural warmth of the earth, or world-spirit, which is innate in the earth and in all the elements, is not stronger or more powerful in the earth’s depths during winter, because it is drawn toward the opposite region of the earth by the power of the heat which establishes spring and summer in that opposite region; indeed on the contrary it is lesser; hence in winter the springs are deprived of their innate and natural power, or at least their power at that season is greatly diminished, because their cause and natural principle are diminished and weak, being carried in abundance to the other part of the earth, drawn by the sun, so that the vernal, sprouting earth may receive and be endowed with the cause and principle of germination. For in that region this principle is very necessary, because all natural things there sprout, bloom, and bear fruit; and for nourishing them only that principle of life is useful and necessary, without which nothing can flower or germinate.

Moreover, in winter rains, snows, and ice prevail, and the waters gathered from these are very abundant; by their mixture they increase and multiply the outflows of springs, and by this mixture the strength of a spring is diminished, because the water that arrives is not equal in power and efficacy.

Nevertheless, nothing less diminishes the powers of springs than the withdrawal of the world-spirit toward that part of the earth where the sun is strong; for that spirit of life follows its source and fountain of life namely the sun which is held by all to be the source of natural life. Nor does more of that spirit remain in the bowels of the earth where winter prevails than is necessary for sustaining life, lest it be extinguished and choked by the severity of the cold.

Therefore in winter the springs lose their power and vigor, and recover them in spring, summer, and autumn, because the spirit of the world’s life the chief cause of the virtues of springs withdraws in winter, arrives in spring, remains in summer, and still abides in autumn. Hence the power of all springs flourishes in these seasons, just as the power of other mixed bodies, which in winter seems dead and spent through the lack of the world-spirit. When that spirit returns, it refreshes and restores the parts of all compounds that winter’s cold has exhausted and as it were killed. And at that time, when spring comes, the springs draw in that spirit and “taste it first,” so that, being moistened with it, they may then share it with the other mixtures of the earth: for springs are the tasters of the whole earth; they sip and sample beforehand that spirit of all nature and then pass it on to the rest.

That the spirit of the world can produce springs everywhere.
Chapter 22.

This universal spirit of the world, of its own accord and by its natural inclination, and to the production of water so that the ancients were not wrong to consider water the first matter of things because water and spirit are hardly distinguished to the eye in the chain of things. For every water contains this spirit by which it is warmed, nourished, and preserved; and the spirit, so as to serve nature, of its own accord is changed into water. Hence it can produce springs everywhere, as experience also makes clear.

Indeed we observe this power and energy in the “dew of the sun” (the sundew), upon whose leaves this world-spirit brings forth a tiny spring that is perpetual and continuous: at whatever hour of the day, while the sun shines and even in the fiercest midday heat, its leaves are continually moistened with dew so that they drip little drops. The most intense ardor and heat of the sun, which dries up rivers, ponds, and springs, cannot dry up these droplets or exhaust them; they remain constantly and intact upon the leaves of this little plant. Endowed with so great a power of attracting this spirit, it draws that spirit even when the sun burns; and since by its nature the spirit spontaneously tends toward water, when it abounds and swells as “sun-dew,” there on the leaves it is changed into dew and water, nor is it ever dried up or parched, because its cause is present.

It is also certain that in the West Indies, toward the Peruvian islands, and in Peru itself, in its mountains where there is abundant gold and silver, there are said to be certain very large trees with restless leaves and branches that are continually and perpetually wet with dew; and they drip so abundantly that they form a spring and even a little stream around the trunk of the tree. The inhabitants drink from it, and the drink is very pleasant and wholesome.

These trees give occasion to philosophize and inquire whence this outflow of fresh water arises a water that neither smells nor tastes of the tree’s sap. Therefore it must not be suspected to come from the tree itself, since in no way does it taste like sap; rather it has its origin only from the surface of the leaves, as was shown above about “sun-dew,” and here in these trees it is shown even more clearly. For we see on the surface of the leaves of these trees little drops of fresh water forming and falling to the ground. We cannot say that these very drops of fresh water are emitted by the trunk of the tree and, by its attraction, are driven out onto the surface of its leaves; for then that water would taste and smell of the tree’s juice. Water cannot pass through the whole trunk of a tree without taking on some odor and taste of that tree. Since, however, it has no smell and no taste at all, we must judge that it does not go through the trunk but comes to the outside upon the leaves.

For those trees are strong and vigorous in the attractive power of the world-spirit; and since that spirit is drawn in copiously, and cannot be [unclear word]; rather, the water lies on the surface of the leaves of those trees. Likewise, in the innermost caverns of the earth where metals and minerals are wont to be formed the innate power of the place draws in a copious portion of the world-spirit for the generation and production of minerals and metals. And since a mineral or a metal cannot come to be without water, the water becomes, as it were, the nearest seed of minerals and metals; so that the water itself, being ever constant and enduring, is regarded in the caverns of the earth as the constant and perpetual seed of metals.

From what has been set forth it is therefore clear and manifest that the productive power of springs flourishes not only in the hollows of the earth, but also in almost all places above ground on the very leaves of plants and even in the open air itself, where that universal spirit by its natural impulse is carried over into water.

The very summits of the mountains also possess and display the same attractive power for the world-spirit; for we see the peaks and ridges of mountains always covered with clouds, because they draw this spirit, which everywhere at once grows cloudy so as to be turned into water. And even if the wide plains are free of clouds and quite bright, we see the mountains veiled and disturbed with mist and cloudiness. This is because the internal heat of the mountains attracts this universal spirit in abundance, and there by its plenty it is easily changed into clouds and mists, so that from this true water is made to sprinkle the mountain tops so that they do not completely dry up and waste away as the world’s radical moisture fails.

It is also certain that all fir trees possess and exercise that power of drawing in the world-spirit, so that each fir in springtime brings forth a spring. This can be verified almost every year in the spring by the flooding of the Loire: for at the very headwaters of that river there are fir forests which in spring pour out so much water that they swell the Loire to such a mass as to produce a deluge.

Let us therefore conclude from these experiences and arguments that the water-producing faculty is found not only in the caves and hollows of the earth, but in almost every place in the air, in the mountains, and even in the trees and plants themselves provided the world-spirit is gathered there in great abundance and drawn to the spot; for it is this spirit that everywhere produces and generates water.

Chapter 23
Why some springs are potent by day but lack all virtue at night

The more closely we search for the “center” of water, the more deeply and marvelously we find the virtues of waters. For there are springs whose power thrives and flourishes while it is day, yet at night they are wholly without virtue. Thus, as the sun rises, their powers also rise and increase up to midday; from midday they gradually fail as the sun declines; in this way they follow the course and the very presence of the sun.

This so wonderful and rare in nature must be examined more profoundly, and its cause deduced from the sun itself. For since the sun is the father of the universal spirit that produces springs, by its presence it strengthens and multiplies that spirit in the spring itself; but when absent it draws that spirit away from the spring and carries it to the opposite part of the earth, until it rises again and, by its presence and its light, leads its spirits back into the spring those that act within the spring and are the powers of the spring itself. For the light of the sun namely the most subtle spirit of the sun descends into the spring and exercises its powers in the very water of the spring. But when it is absent, its powers are absent; for the spirits of light are wholly volatile and do not unite with the spring-water, but, as it were in a mirror, shine through and sparkle; and by that present light the inmost and inborn spirits of the spring are stirred, whence the virtue is aroused in those native spirits strengthened as they are which constitute the power and efficacy of the spring.

We observe a similar movement in certain flowers: when the sun is present they spread and open; when it is absent they fold up and curl in upon themselves until the sun rises, whose rising again unfolds their buds. Thus day by day they open, and night by night they curl up, until at last they wholly perish and wither. This sacred work of nature we can ascribe to no other cause than the spirit of light itself, which, while the sun is active and present, flourishes and abounds, and strengthens and multiplies the innate vital spirits of the flowers, so that, being strengthened and multiplied, they part and display the buds. But when the light of the sun is absent, deprived of such solace, the vital spirits of the flowers, as if fading, are compelled to close their buds.

By exactly the same reasoning it is with certain springs: that inborn and natural spirit of light the natural power of certain springs is so strengthened by the presence and light of the sun that its virtue becomes plainly evident; surrounded by such solace it thrives, but when it is deprived of that solace, it withers to such a degree that it no longer flourishes. For the spirit by which these springs come to be and are produced has such sympathy with the spirit of light and of the sun that it needs the sun’s continual companionship in order to be preserved.

Some querulous fellow will object: why do not all springs do the same marvelous thing and act alike, since all are made and produced by the very spirit of light, whose father is the Sun? The reason is obvious: just as boys and sons do not all equally follow the nature of their father, so every spring has its own particular spirit, which depends on the sun as upon its father; this spirit is a particular “son” of the sun. But these sons do not all possess the same power as the sun, although all are from the sun; and thus some springs follow and love the sun more than others, because they possess more of the sun’s virtue and nature. Hence it is clear that, in the production of certain springs, the Sun often contributes more according to its nature than any other heavenly planet; therefore those springs that are thus produced imitate the sun more and follow its course more than other springs, in whose production the sun’s influence was smaller.

So too one may observe that the Moon and the other nocturnal planets produce greater and more exert a stronger influence in the production of certain springs than the diurnal planets. Thus these springs follow the nature and motion of the night more than others, over which the sun and the diurnal planets preside.

Let us therefore conclude that the springs which follow the sun’s nature and course, and which display their powers by day but hide them at night, are endowed with and sustained by the solar spirit of life, which is accustomed to be vigorous by day but to be quiet at night; and so their powers, too, flourish by day, but at night they fade and altogether fail.

Whence it is that some springs thrive at night but are silent by day.
Chapter 24

It is rare and very remarkable that God, the author of nature, did not will that all natural powers and properties should shine forth only by day; rather He willed that the night also be endowed with its own powers and with wondrous gifts of nature. Day alone does not exclude or exhaust nature’s endowments; night has and retains its own particular properties.

Just as it is illuminated by its own peculiar luminaries, so also is endowed with its own special gift of nature; and there are mixed natural things that possess powers and properties which they display only at night and then make manifest. And if the night also has its own peculiar animals that perform their characteristic actions only at night, then so too must there be plants and trees which by night possess more power and activity than by day, so as to serve nocturnal animals. Springs also ought to be nocturnal those that have more virtue at night than in the daytime and these make the night a marvel.

The number of flowers that show their beauty at night but hide it by day is very great. And how many trees there are that put forth their fruits by night, and consecrate and dedicate to the night what they have that is most precious.

Moreover, that “light of life,” which is the principle of all things, is never truly mingled with the elements except in the time of night. Hence the Spagyric philosophers, speaking enigmatically when they discuss the mixing of that light with the elemental body, assert that night provides the light with garments visible and tangible and that the light, thus prepared by nature, is (as it were) enclosed by the moisture of the night.

From this a proper reason can be sought why there are certain springs that display and reveal their powers at night; nor is it at all surprising, since that light of life, that the principle of all things is united with, and mingled into, the elements in the time of night; therefore there are found mixed things plants, trees, and springs which, at the very moment of their mixture with the elements, draw in and drink that spirit of life for their nourishment and their own preservation. And from this they have greater power, since the very principle of power and action then more strongly drives out and attracts, and they make their operations more evident at that time, when the inmost heat is stirred to activity from the principle of action and power, so that it may receive the nourishment and natural warmth that belong to it.

Moreover, every thing by natural instinct and inclination is carried toward love of what is like itself, both in substance and in quality. Now all things that thrive by night have a nature akin to the Moon and to the nocturnal constellations; for these heavenly powers shape and compose all things that flourish at night and impart to them a nature like their own. And since the Moon and the rest of the nocturnal constellations are vigorous and prevail at night, it is reasonable that all things which follow the essence of the nocturnal constellations also follow their qualities and powers.

And since the nocturnal constellations together with the Moon itself possess more virtue by night than in the light of day, it follows that all those things which follow the essence of the nocturnal constellations to have, in its essence and nature, more power at night than by day. And there are many springs into which the Moon and the other nocturnal constellations have poured their special and proper influences and have imparted their own lunar essence which is powerful by night so that these springs are vigorous at night but fall silent by day.

Just as the Sun has its own “solar” springs that are active by day, and many other mixed bodies that imitate the Sun’s nature, so it is right and reasonable that the Moon also should have its peculiar mixtures over which it so strongly presides that, in the time of night when the Moon’s powers and properties shine out most the properties of these mixtures likewise shine forth.

For in the night-time, when the virtues of the Moon and the other nocturnal heavenly bodies are strong and flourishing, the springs that harmonize with those celestial powers receive more virtue and energy, after they have taken into themselves that life-giving spirit of things which, by the nocturnal stars as if by certain hunters is more tightly snared by the night’s moisture as by a marvelous net, and thus, being captured, is enclosed within the mixtures of all things. Nor can it be freed from this prison in any way unless it is released by its like by something pure and not yet shut up anywhere.

Side margin - have more power at night than by day.

Therefore, if at that time this spirit the universal power of things is more abundantly enclosed in mixed bodies, it is no wonder if there are found.

Some springs have more virtue at night than in the full light of day, because in the night-time the cause of those springs’ powers is present, whereas when the sun is present it wanders away.

Hence certain springs flow throughout the night but dry up by day, since the life-spirit the father of the springs becomes water at night, while in the daytime it strays into the light and the rays.

Let us therefore conclude that all springs whose power and energy thrive by night, and whose waters flow in the night-time, depend upon the Moon and the nocturnal constellations; for these have the power of moistening the light and of mingling it with the bodies of the elements.

Side margin - Light becomes water at night.

Now this light, when mixed with the bodies of the elements, is the source and the true efficient and material cause of all springs. And since the material and efficient cause of all springs becomes water at night, it is clear that certain springs are stronger and flourish more at the time when they are born and arise than at any other time; for the nocturnal stars that produce these springs pour out more virtue at the moment of production than at other times. For an agent, while acting, pours its power into the patient matter, and at that time the matter receives it. Thus these springs, produced by the nocturnal stars, receive a greater power from those stars during the night.

Therefore certain springs that are produced under the nocturnal stars take on greater power at night at the very time at which they were brought forth and they display that virtue more effective and more potent than at any other time.

Whence the tastes and the various odors found in springs arise.
Chapter 25

All the flavors and odors that can be found in springs come from the spirit of the world, which is the efficient cause of springs. The variety of these qualities has its origin in the different “cookings” of the elements present in the springs; for as the elements are mixed by that spirit, they seem, while being mixed, to be cooked by the very heavenly heat of the spirit itself, and in that very cooking they acquire a degree of taste and smell that corresponds to the mixture and cooking of those elements.

We have clear, everyday evidence of this in the fruits of the same species among Italians, French, English, Germans, and other such peoples: though the fruits are of the same species, yet they differ in quality and are not endowed with one and the same flavor and odor, but with wholly various and diverse across different climates in which these fruits arise; for in these different regions of the earth the outward heat of the sun is varied and diverse, and the influences of the other planets are varied as well, whereby the “cooking” and ripening of these fruits changes, and likewise their radical moisture changes and is distinguished, since different qualities are imparted to it whence the tastes and odors in all these springs are various.

As fruits differ in different parts of the earth, so do springs in the various caverns and caves of the earth: for since these places differ among themselves, the radical moisture of springs varies. The sun and the other stars, by their various aspects, produce different dispositions in the earth’s caverns in different parts of the earth; hence the springs produced there are diverse, because the light and influence of the sun and stars there are diverse. And therefore, since the influences vary, the effects and productions must also vary; hence too the qualities of springs must vary, since the underlying substance is diverse. Some are endowed with acidity, others with bitterness, many with sweetness; very many are tasteless; some are vinous, some salty, sharp, and biting. But drinkable ones ought to be tasteless and without any odor at all, coming from the pure influx of the sun and its volatile ray together with the pure moisture of the elements that is, with the pure substance of all the elements in which the humidity of air and water prevails, that is, of mercury the vital substance predominates; hence, in the class of springs, only those are truly drinkable and nourishing.

All the different tastes of springs that are found in various springs throughout the whole world arise from nothing else than the moisture or “mercury” of the springs. This moisture is made diverse by the varied and differing light of the sun and the stars, which fashion this “mercury”; and according to the diversity of the sun’s and stars’ aspects, this spring-mercury is altered and endowed with diverse primary and secondary qualities. These qualities are then more and more perfected as, by their own inner “sun,” that is, by their innate and natural heat, they are brought to maturity and “cooking.”

Those who know how to congeal water by heat know by experience what I mean, and by what reasoning one and the same thing, through continuous “cooking” alone, is varied at different times and, from that uninterrupted cooking, is furnished with different qualities cooking which awakens the thing’s internal “sun” and makes its hidden gifts and properties manifest and visible.

Nevertheless, I cannot deny that at times some portion of vitriol or some other mineral is mixed with certain springs, and from the admixture of these minerals there comes to the springs some very particular flavor a flavor which is not natural but adventitious, arising from an accidental mixture, and which can quite easily be removed by a simple can be separated from the spring-water by distillation; but other flavors, since they are inborn and natural, can by no human art be separated from springs. They always persist together with the waters themselves and “die” together with them unless the very water of the spring is changed and altered by the inward “cooking” of the earth’s sun, that is, the earth’s own natural heat, which alters all earthly things and likewise modifies the springs and adorns them with various qualities, according to the various internal cookings the springs receive from their own inner sun, or innate heat. This is evident in fruits, which, from the various cookings they undergo by their inner sun until they wholly perish and are consumed, are always endowed with diverse primary and secondary qualities.

With these points established, we may conclude that all the tastes found in different springs depend on their own internal heat that is, on their sun and sulphur, which essentially constitute springs and that as this sulphur acts upon its radical moisture (which we also call their “mercury”), cooking it in various ways, there arise from this various qualities and likewise the various tastes found in springs. These have their origin in the variety of the cooking of their radical moisture or “mercury,” that is, of the world-spirit individualized within the springs themselves. And although in some cases they may depend on a mixture of certain minerals such as vitriol, sulphur, salt, and the like yet that mixture is accidental.

Why ordinary, drinkable springs are colder in summer and warmer in winter
Chapter 26

The whole company of philosophers, by common consent, asserts that the water of an ordinary, drinkable spring is colder in summer than at any other time; indeed, that in winter it grows warm because of antiperistasis.

Among philosophers, antiperistasis is the compression on every side of cold by heat, or of heat by cold that is, the action by which heat everywhere drives back and confines cold (and conversely). For example: when in summer heat prevails at the surface of the earth, that prevailing heat compresses the cold on every side and drives it into the innermost and deepest caverns of the earth; hence at that time the caverns are cold, and whatever is found in them is likewise chilled. But when in winter cold prevails on the earth’s surface, that prevailing cold drives and presses the heat into the inner hollows of the earth; and thus the interior of the earth is warm in winter. This reciprocal action of heat and cold this mutual contest of heat and cold is called antiperistasis. To this alone almost all philosophers attribute the reason why springs are especially cold in summer but warm in winter: for since the inner parts of the earth grow warm in winter through antiperistasis, it follows that the springs which gush from the innermost parts of the earth are warmed by that same antiperistasis, and likewise are cooled in summer. This is the common view and opinion of all philosophers about the matter; yet it does not please me or wholly satisfy the question. For there still remains to inquire, when this antiperistasis comes about, whence it is that cold is said to drive back heat, and whence heat compresses cold on every side in summer.

Since heat, being the most powerful of all active things, ought always to overcome cold and keep it, as it were, bound in chains in the inmost caverns of the earth places most remote from the very throne of heat. For the heavens are the father and source of heat (since they are the source and origin of light, on which all heat depends, as we have proved elsewhere), and they surround the earth on every side and warm it with their vital light and heat. Hence cold ought always to be repelled into the inner caves of the earth, and the interior of the earth ought always to grow cold from this repercussion of cold; and thus the springs, too, ought at all times to be cold.

Nevertheless, experience itself shows that at one time the inner parts of the earth become warm, and at another they become cold.

Side margin - Why in summer the earth’s interior grows cold.

Thus, by alternating turns of heat and cold, springs too are seen now to warm and now to cool through that antiperistasis of cold and heat; but the reason for that antiperistasis remains to be sought, so that we may know the true and proper cause why springs are warm in winter and cold in summer.

Therefore springs are cold in summer, when the natural heat the inborn light of the earth itself, which the Creator implanted in all the elements at that season rushes with great force to the earth’s surface to nourish and cherish all things that need that vital light, so that by that nourishment and warmth they may be stirred to sprouting and to production. And so, since the earth’s innate heat as a whole presses to the surface in summer in order to nourish, foster, and rouse all mixed things to germination, it follows that the inner parts of the earth, being then deprived of their natural heat, grow cold; and everything that is there, especially springs, feels the effects of this cold.

Side margin - Why in winter the earth’s interior grows warm.

In winter, however, springs are warm, and so are the inner parts of the earth, because at that time the earth’s innate heat is not drawn to the surface; rather, when the pores of the earth are compressed by the external cold, it is prevented from exhaling, and indeed is preserved whole thus it increases and multiplies since the earth’s inner “sun,” while sending its rays toward the surface, finds that surface packed fast by the cold and, as it were, sealed finds it tightly packed, so that its rays are reflected back toward their own source; and thus the earth’s internal heat is multiplied and, at that season, summer prevails in the earth’s innermost parts. In this way all earthly things are “cooked,” and they attain concoction things which otherwise could not be digested and they come to their perfection.

These are the true and legitimate causes of antiperistasis. They do not depend on the “flight” of cold or of heat, but on the real attraction of heat and on its expenditure at the earth’s surface when summer flourishes there in nourishing and fostering mixed bodies; or else on the retention of that very heat in the earth’s depths when winter prevails, in order then to nourish and sustain all the things that are generated in the innermost parts of the earth.

So that this doctrine may be understood more clearly, one must know that the vital heat of all nature has its center the world’s center; and for the whole of created nature this is the center of the earth. Therefore in the earth’s center the vital heat of the whole of nature thrives. This can be inferred from the particular mixed things of nature (each of which represents the whole nature of the world): for in the center of any mixed thing its own vital heat is active. If, then, that is found in each of nature’s mixed things, it must likewise be found in the very body of the whole of nature.

Therefore in the center of the earth there lives and flourishes the heat or fire of life, which from itself sends forth perpetual, it pours forth the rays of life from the very center up to the surface; but if in winter that surface is braced by cold, its pores being shut by the chill, the vital fire is kept within its own recess and multiplies, since it does not exhale thus the vital fire grows in winter. Conversely, when that same surface is opened at that season by the sun’s external heat, and the pores of the earth are unsealed, that natural fire of the earth, which had been enclosed, breathes out and evaporates through the opened pores; and with the heat evaporated and the fire issuing forth, the earth’s interior is tempered indeed, it cools, the cause of its warmth having been diminished. This is the true reason why the inner parts of the earth are warm in winter: for if there were not in the earth’s center a perpetual, inborn natural heat, rising continually from the center to the surface, the extreme cold of winter could not warm the innermost parts of mountains by driving inward the heat that is found spread over the earth’s surface. For heat would not make for the depths of the mountains unless the source of heat were also present in their very depths; rather it would fly upward toward the sky since heat does not descend from the sky.

From this let us conclude that springs grow warm in winter and grow cold in summer, not because of antiperistasis, but because the natural, implanted heat of the earth is greater in winter than at any other time; whereas in summer they cool, because at that time that heat (which we also call the Sun, and the sulphur of life, and fire) is at its least when it comes to the surface of the earth because at that season it is drawn to the mixed bodies of nature, so that by it they may be nourished, warmed, and stirred to generation.

Whence the motion of springs toward the different quarters of the world
Chapter 27

This question is very difficult: why some springs move toward the East, others toward the West; very many toward the North, and many toward the South. Almost innumerable philosophers have treated this question and have asserted that water is naturally and of itself mobile, since it is liquid and flowing and is confined by an external boundary.

Other philosophers assign the cause of this motion to the heavens, since by their motion they draw along and set in motion whatever things are liquid and fluid. Others ascribe it to the bulging and roundness of the earth, around which the water runs perpetually so as to gird the earth in its embrace. Many, however, attribute the cause of this motion to the air, since the air is in perpetual movement and bounds the water with its own limit; whence, when the boundary of the water is moved, the water itself also is moved it must be so; and experience itself proves it. For when the air is motionless and calm, the water too is motionless truly still and without any movement. Shut water up in a glass vessel: if the vessel remains unmoved, the water will also remain unmoved, nor will it ever move unless the vessel that contains it is moved.

The first opinion, which asserts that water moves of itself by its natural impulse since it is liquid and is contained by an external boundary is most true. And all the other opinions are likewise true, since they come back to one and the same account when rightly explained: namely, that the world-spirit, which moves and stirs all the elements, likewise moves water in every direction toward all the quarters of this world, according to the different attraction exerted by the different parts of the world. The western parts do not attract the eastern, nor the eastern the southern, nor the southern the northern; rather each part draws to itself what is like itself.

Hence springs whose origin lies in the eastern regions of the sky all have their course toward the East and move that way, nor are they ever carried toward other quarters of the world; for the spirits that produced these springs are eastern and arise from the eastern part of the heavens. Therefore whatever is produced on earth by those spirits always inclines and turns toward its own source and fountainhead.

And so all the other springs that take their origin in the various regions of the world are carried toward those quarters of the sky from which the heavenly spirits descended to produce the springs.

Thus, by their natural impulse, springs move toward the celestial regions from which they received the spirits that produced them.

We must therefore conclude that springs move toward the different parts of the world by the universal spirit of the world, which establishes the very essence and nature of springs. Since this spirit is diffused from all parts of the world and brings forth what is to be produced in every region, the springs that are brought forth by eastern spirits always have their course toward the East: they follow their producing causes and by a natural tendency turn back toward their origin.

Likewise, the other celestial regions that communicate this universal spirit to the earth for the generating of springs there drive and direct the motion of the springs toward those very quarters, so that they always tend toward the place where their producers are. So too all trees and all growing things imitate this inborn motion: they face that quarter of the sky from which they chiefly receive their particular cause; it is not by chance that a tree or plant has one and the same quarter of the sky before it, for it is innate and natural for all plants always to look toward the parts of the heavens that produce them.

Likewise the springs act and direct their courses toward those parts of the heavens from which the spirits that produce the springs descend unceasingly as if from an inexhaustible ocean of waters.

Conclusion of the first book of the Spagyric Hydrographer

We have said much in this first book about the nature and essence, the origin, and the marvelous effects of springs in general. To complete the work, however, it now remains for us to speak of springs in particular, so that we may behold in them the wondrous effects of the spirit of the world. Many indeed almost all writers who treat the marvels of nature refer these effects to ‘occult causes,’ being ignorant of this spirit and unwilling to see the very light of nature, gleaming and shining in the Sun itself.

I know not by what fate this came about in former ages; but now, by God’s grace, it grows clearer and brighter by the day and illumines the writings of all authors, so that doctors are beginning to banish from the schools those so-called occult causes as the trifles of veils.

This alone is the spirit that has accomplished nature’s wonders: without the action of that spirit, nature lies dead, as we have shown in many places in our works; and, God granting, we shall set it forth still more clearly in the following book on the marvelous effects of springs.

Side margin - Every operation of nature is from the Spirit.

For whatever every operation of nature and whatever is marvelous among the elements depends upon and takes its origin from the spirit of light, which is the spirit of the world.

The so-called primary and secondary qualities contribute almost nothing to the knowledge of wondrous things; rather, it is this Spirit alone that, within and without, illumines all of nature with its own light, and nothing is hidden that is not made manifest by it. Whoever knows this Spirit has the sun everywhere as his guide, nor can any darkness befall him. But whoever is ignorant of it is truly blind: everything is shut to him and wrapped in the densest darkness. What he sees and touches he does not know of what sort it is or what it is and he is compelled to put faith in what others say and write.

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HYDROGRAPHY, SPAGYRIC OR ON SPRINGS OF WONDROUS POWERS
Book 2

Spagyric Hydrography, or On the marvelous virtues of springs Book II.

On the spring which is found in the village of Belesta, in the Pyrenean wilds.

Chapter 1.
Description of the Estorbe spring.

This spring is situated among the Pyrenean mountains, in the Pyrenean wilds, in a single valley between two very high mountains, at the foot of the mountain called Estorbe, whence the spring takes its name. It undergoes hourly “tides,” beginning on the feast of St. John the Baptist, and it goes on and continues these same tides without any interruption until the Nativity of the Lord; at which season it flows continually, from a cave hollowed out like a furnace at the foot of that mountain, which by its own nature and of itself, is cut sheer into a precipice, at the foot of which that spring bursts forth one which, by its marvellous gush, has astonished all philosophers and carries them into admiration. For so great a quantity of water flows that, even at the very threshold of the source, it drives four little mills (moletrinae), where iron is smelted, keys are made, and trees are split into boards very much to the convenience and benefit of the inhabitants.

Side margin - The spring called Estorbe foretells the sterility and fertility of the grain.

Whenever the winter season is very dry and cold and is not disturbed by rains, then at that time the spring undergoes its hourly swellings right up to the holy day of Easter by which a wonderful abundance of the year’s harvest is foretold. But when, in the very month of October or in November, that hourly heaving of the spring ceases, it denotes barrenness of the crops. Thus the inhabitants have in the spring itself a most certain omen of fertility and of sterility.

The natural reasons why this happens are well known to all to whom the source of this spring is familiar: for the earth’s fertility depends on the abundance of the spirit of the world, which is truly the fatness of the earth and the center of fertility, from which the power of germination proceeds.

Side margin - The spirit of the world is the center of fertility.

And since this spring swells throughout the whole winter, it is the surest sign that the spirit of the world which produces this swelling in the spring itself is abundant and greatly surging, and is not being called away to another part of the earth opposite to us, as the sun withdraws from us so as to bring about summer in the other hemisphere; or at least it is a sign that the spirit of the world has not been darkened and made dull by the winter waters, the abundance of waters, by which the strength and power of that spirit are blunted; and the supply of the germ is much smaller there is produced a quantity of grasses and a heap of straw, but little grain and seed when winter teems with rain and is sodden.

But when it is cold and dry, the spirit at that season is separated from every phlegmatic and serous moisture; whence it penetrates the whole earth more deeply and profoundly, mingles itself with a great body, imbues all seeds with its fruitful nectar, and brings forth plentiful and prolific offspring.

Therefore, when the spring swells in wintertime, it proclaims a lack of water in the earth’s interior: for if the water were abundant, the spring would not swell, but would flow with a perpetual and continuous current and pour forth unfailing waters by which the vigor and virtue of the spirit of the world would be dulled by the cold qualities of the water itself. But when it is stripped of these, it is pure and simple, and by its own simple essence it makes the earth fruitful.

But when its swelling ceases in due season, and throughout the whole winter it pours forth lasting and continuous waters, then a rainy, cold, and bitter winter is indicated, and that elemental water abounds too much in the inner caverns of the earth; this abundance dulls and benumbs this spirit the cause of fertility whence its power is less and barrenness arises, because the seeds that are entrusted to the earth for germination rot and are spoiled by excessive moisture, are spoiled; thus this spring, by its swellings and abatements, announces the fertility and sterility of the year’s grain. And this swelling has no other cause than that which we said and explained in Book I of this work, chap. 10.

Side margin - Whence the hourly swelling of the Estorbe spring.

But whence is it hourly, and why in the space of twenty-four hours is it repeated twenty-four times? This arises from the abundance of the spirit of the world, which is exceedingly plentiful at the source of this spring. And the water which it produces within the hour certainly hinders the exit of this spirit by its dense and therefore cold body; and so the spirit is compressed and prevented from going out. Hence the spirit grows and, becoming more abundant and therefore stronger, with a rush drives out the waters which it itself had produced and heaped together into one; and this surge is kept up for a whole hour, until the supply of spirit has issued forth. And this happens rather in summer than in winter, for in summer itself the spirit of the world, which is spent on the fashioning and bringing-forth of minerals, at that season swells in the inmost caverns of the earth. And the water is colder and more abundant in those places than at any other time; by its quantity and coldness it condenses and compresses the pores of the earth, so that a free outlet is not open for the spirit of minerals.

But in the time of winter the spirit itself is present in smaller measure in the caverns of the earth, because it is called forth to the other part of the hemisphere in which the sun is vigorous and makes summer, and by its magnetic heat and ray it attracts to itself this spirit, akin to itself, so as to bring about germination in things.

I add also that in wintertime heat is vigorous in the caverns of the earth; hence the water that is found in those caverns of the earth is warmed, becomes thinner, and is more easily permeable by the spirit itself. From this it follows that in winter the water is not driven to an outlet with a violent motion, but with a lasting and continuous motion because perhaps the whole mineral spirit, by the earth’s warmth, is converted into water; and thus, since the spirit is wholly converted into water, it does not arouse that movement which is beyond the nature of water.

This, unless I am mistaken, is the true and legitimate reason why this spring undergoes hourly swellings only in summer time, and sometimes even in winter, if the winter imitates the conditions and properties of summer.

In the years 1624 and 1625, for almost the whole of those years, this spring experienced its hourly swellings, because of the plenty and abundance of the spirit, which in those years was copious; and it was indicating remarkable changes in the whole order of human affairs: whence throughout all Gaul the heretics were vanquished and overcome especially where this spring stirs up its swellings where Lord François d’Amboise, Count of Aubijoux, a steadfast Christian and Catholic, with the greatest piety and zeal for the Christian faith and its profession, [was defeating] the aforesaid heresies he forbade it to all his people at the place of Belesta and prohibited it, and he laid the severest penalties on violators of this interdict; whence the death of some followers ensued, and especially of the minister of this heresy. At last, through the steadfastness of the lord Count, all the heretics were converted and embraced the ancient Catholic and Apostolic Roman religion.

Side margin - By what reason heresies and movements of mind can be augured from heaven.

These various and notable changes in the Christian religion were indicated by that remarkable swelling of this spring; for when the spirit of the world the true symbol of the true Christ is plentiful and abundant, it brings about notable alterations in the order of things and tends to restore bodies to their best state and condition. Hence, as bodies are changed for the better, so too the passions of souls and divine worship itself are reformed for the better. From this it is possible to foretell from heaven itself heresies and their beginnings, and the stirrings of minds.

The said heresy would have been utterly rooted out from the minds of all, if very many Counts d’Aubijoux had been found in Gaul men who, with the same spirit, would have torn out those thorns and briers from the Catholic Church, while heaven and earth were proclaiming the same thing by countless signs given.

Side margin - Sign of the destruction of La Rochelle.

In that very time, and in the same year, before La Rochelle had undergone the siege, there was given on the very shore of La Rochelle a most notable and well-known sign of its destruction, and that the heretics were cast down; for the sea-water became sweet and laid aside its bitterness and saltness a most certain sign that La Rochelle (Rupella) must at length put off its fierceness and its rustic tempers and usages, and at length grow sweet and finally come to the sweetness of the Roman Church, the bitterness of the Calvinist heresy receding.

These natural mysteries wish to be judged by their hidden and withdrawn sense; yet they cannot be thus explained by any human wit, since men are unwilling to weigh the causes why such things come to pass, but twist it to other causes of things: as when the sweetness of this sea-shore is referred to a flooding of the Loire; although the Loire is incapable of changing the whole shore of this sea into fresh water. This we must refer solely to the spirit of the world, which by its operation can make waters sweet nay, it can even make colocynth and aloe themselves become sweet. Whence this shore too could lose its own bitterness and saltness by that very Spirit, so that the inhabitants of that shore might have a token of God’s grace and mercy, by which He sends forth His Spirit and renews the face of the earth and of the sea; and thus many heretics abjured their heresy and tasted beforehand that divine grace, the Spirit being poured out anew, by which they were renewed.

About the spring called Son.
Chapter 2.

Side margin - Description of the Som spring.”

This spring lies in the Pyrenees, near a mountain called Tabor, on the side toward Spain. The head of the spring is small, and is surrounded by aconite (napellus); and from this it is poisonous so that for all animals which drink from this spring the draught is lethal, and that within a short and very brief time.

Very many have attributed this spring’s poison to the aconite; I myself, in my Palladium, held this opinion. But now, made more prudent, I have changed my view, and I assert that the poison of this spring arises from the nature of the spring itself, and not from any corruption of the aconite falling into the spring.

For the spirit of the world, which produces springs and all things in the order of nature while it brings forth the spring itself out of the material of the elements produces in that very spring a spiritual arsenic, which is mixed with the water. It is very easy for this venomous spirit to be mingled with the water of this spring, since in the beginning of its origin it is a subtle water or vapor; whence all arsenic and realgar is produced.

Side margin - The spiritual poison is most powerful.

And unless in this part, or place, the spring were breaking forth, true realgar and arsenic would be produced from that venomous spirit; but the spring prevents this, and what is the seed of arsenic is swept away by its flow and by its water, so that it never coagulates, while the spiritual [poison] flows along with the spring water. Hence the water’s poison is strong and potent, because the seed of a poison is stronger and more powerful than its body; for when in a body it is coagulated, the seed of the poison is tempered and moderated in the very act of coagulation.

This is clear and manifest in the plague, whose poison is always spiritual and imitates the essence of a seed, not of a body; for that reason it exerts its most powerful actions. But when, from the nature and essence of a seed, it passes into a body and, from its spiritual nature, is transformed into a solid body, then it loses almost all the qualities of the poison; and plagues cease when its poison is coagulated into some body because then the plague-poison is no longer communicable, nor can it act outside the sphere of its own body, since its activity is confined there.

Thus we must say of the poison of this spring that it is powerful and strong because it is spiritual and not yet coagulated into a body, but is held as the seed of a poison; whence its action is most powerful. But if it were to be coagulated into some body mineral, animal, or vegetable then at length its poison would cease and vanish, and within the limits of its own body it would be confined; nevertheless a quantity of napellus [aconite/monkshood] is generated in the spring itself and around its outlet. And this quantity of napellus lessens and extinguishes the poison of this spring, because that spiritual seed of the poison is partly consumed and expended on the generation of the napellus; yet not all the seed is spent, but much still remains, from which the poison shows itself.

Nevertheless, if the quantity of napellus were not as great as it is, I think the poison of this spring would be stronger still, and could rage against all who pass by; but because the production of napellus draws to itself the greater force of the poison, therefore the power of this poison is less. Thus God, the conqueror and governor of all nature’s evil, diminishes this evil by the budding and sprouting of the napellus, which coagulates this poison, fixes it into its own body, and condenses it, and so restrains its volatile and communicable nature.

If at length a mine of arsenic or of some realgar could be made here, I believe this spring could finally be dried up perhaps within a hundred years this will occur then this venomous spirit will at last be fixed into some vein of realgar, and so the spring will dry. Nevertheless the spring could continue, with every poisonous quality extinguished, because the very substance of the poison will be fixed into some poisonous lode.

Side margin - By what reasoning poisonous springs are finally extinguished.

And yet the water of the spring will remain perennial water, since both the spring-water itself and the poison mixed with the water can be distinguished from one another when the one perishes, the other can persist. Thus at length this spring will lose every poisonous substance and at last become drinkable at which marvel all who are alive at that time will be astonished.”

On the Lake of Saint Bartholomew among the people of Foix
Chapter 3

Side margin - Description of the Lake of St. Bartholomew.

In the County of Foix, above a mountain called Tabor (which belongs to the Lord Baron of Mirepoix), there is a notable lake, full of many waters, very deep and very high [in elevation], and exceedingly rich in large trout. Its water is so deep that it appears black from its depth and height; it is drinkable and healthful; its water flows out nowhere, but stands motionless and permanent on the summit of this mountain: in winter it does not grow, nor is it diminished by the heat and dryness of summer. It is commonly said that if its waters are stirred by some motion contrived by art, either by throwing stones or by stirring it with sticks they can cause and rouse notable rains, thunders, and lightnings.

Side margin - Whence the spring of St. Bartholomew’s lake.

This perhaps has sometimes happened when the time and sky were so disposed; for in the month of August the only time when it is permitted to climb this mountain, since at that season the snow is absent with which the mountain is covered almost the whole year, except only the month of August the sky in this region is set for rains, storms, thunder, and lightning. Therefore, if at that time the water of the lake is agitated and remarkable tempests and changes of the air come on, this is to be attributed not to the agitation, but to the season. Nevertheless, if this wonder of nature should arise from the stirring of the lake, I have set down the reasons and points of this marvel in my Palladium: since it comes from vapors and exhalations that go out from the lake when it is shaken and stirred, in that very region of the air in which those meteors are wont to be produced.

Now what remains for us to inquire is only the source of the lake whence it is on the very summit of the mountain; whence its water is motionless and permanent; whence it is that it does not grow in winter and is diminished in summer; that its water flows out nowhere; and whence such notable and very large trout are produced.

As regards its spring, I am not of the same opinion as the inhabitants of this region, who think the water is a survivor of the Flood, preserved in the hollow of this mountain from of the moisture of the middle region of the air, in which this lake lies; but the summit of the mountain rises above the middle region of the air and is placed in the highest region of the air, in which there are no meteors. Hence on the top of the mountain there are no clouds nor any meteors at all. The inhabitants experience this every year, when in the month of August they climb this mountain to hear the Mass which is celebrated there annually in honor of Saint Bartholomew, in a church consecrated to Bartholomew. After the Mass has been celebrated, they scatter ashes upon the stones of the altar which stand beneath the open sky, and with their fingers they write the name of Christ and various other names at will; returning the following year they find the ashes untouched, and the very same names traced with fingers upon the ashes. From this it is most certain that neither snow, nor rain, nor wind can arise in this place, and that the top of this mountain is beyond the middle region of the air and situated in the highest region itself.

It is very wonderful that on the summit of this mountain, above the middle region of the air, there should be found a very large and deep lake, rich and abundant in huge trout. Those who think these waters to be the waters of the Flood are entirely mistaken: would they not have been consumed in the space of two thousand years by the dryness of the mountain, which is almost scorched every year by the heat of the summer sun?

Side margin - Water, the first matter of things.

Would they not also have been consumed by the generation and by the production of grasses and trees and minerals, which on the mountain itself are brought forth in continual and perpetual motion things that can take the matter of their nourishment and preservation from no other source than the waters of the lake itself, since there is there no rain nor any dew from which the hidden nourishment that is produced throughout the whole mountain might be derived. This view and opinion, being the vulgar one, is equally vain and ridiculous; therefore we set it aside, and we affirm that in the lake itself there is a very great spring, by which the lake is maintained. And if it does not increase, the reason lies ready to hand: the consumption and use of the waters are equal to and commensurate with the springing‐forth; as much water as is produced is almost entirely expended for the nourishment of all the things that are produced there.

For water is the first matter of all things, from which all things are made, nourished, and preserved; therefore, as this water of the lake is produced, there are produced also all the things to be produced that are on the mountain itself and are found there, and all of them are preserved; whence just as much is consumed as water is produced, and so the water does not overflow.

There are also, at the foot of the mountain, many springs bubbling here and there, which without doubt draw their origin from the lake through the pores of the mountain; whence I can assert that this lake overflows and issues at its base through those springs that flow here and there in various places, since upon its surface it cannot flow, by reason of its height.

Side margin - Whence the trout in the lake of St. Bartholomew.

Let it therefore be agreed that the lake has an internal spring, by whose benefit its water is kept lasting and perennial, from the spirit of the world, which, by an inexhaustible flow of waters, makes this spring perpetual and ever-flowing.

But whence do the very large and remarkable trout arise in the lake itself? One must know that every kind of fish has its origin from water alone, and that the true seed of all fishes lies hidden in the inmost bosom of the waters, which is called into act by the very slight warmth of the sun and stars. And although at one time no kind of fish is found in a river or in some lake, yet afterward fish arise here and there according to the various and distinct influences of the stars and planets, which variously and distinctly differentiate and actuate that internal seed of the water toward every kind of fish provided the place for nourishing and producing the fish is convenient and suitable. For it is not enough for the production of fish that the seed be apt and fit; the place also is necessary, and the climate of the region for nourishing the fish.

Otherwise every river and the sea would produce every kind of fish; for all rivers and seas swell with that internal, general seed apt for producing fish. But not every place and each climate of the land is fit for nourishing fish; therefore, when they have not the means by which they may be nourished, that internal seed is not called into act as is seen in on the shore of Genoa itself, in which no kind of fish has ever appeared.

Side margin - Why Genoa’s shore lacks fish.

And in many other places and tracts of the Ocean that are utterly without fish places which fishes flee as if they were their tomb.

The reason of this, perhaps, is as follows: in such places the heavens and their celestial influences, by the operation and help of the spirit of the world, produce something contrary and hostile to the nourishing and begetting of fishes; hence fishes shun those parts of the ocean as though they destroyed the fishes themselves and strove to annihilate their kind.

It must therefore be concluded that the trout, and every other sort of fish found swimming in the Lake of Saint Bartholomew, are generated from that general seed which is in all waters; and that this seed is individuated into trout by the special benefit of the site and the favor of the sky by a particular influence which brings forth trout in this lake.

We observe in particular that all rivers with rocky channels, and those rising from rocky mountains, abound in trout; and when the channel changes namely, when from rocky it becomes sandy and full of silt then at such times trout do not descend into that channel but remain within the rocky bed. This experience is our indication that stony places are proper and fit for nourishing and producing trout.

Side margin - Whence trout are nourished and arise.

But this Lake of Saint Bartholomew is rocky, and its whole channel is as it were of stone; therefore it is most fit for producing and nourishing trout. The air on every side is most pure, the sky serene, well purged of clouds and other meteors. From this there is produced a seed in which the principles of salt, sulphur, and mercury are pure and freed from the dregs of the elements; whence rocks, stones, and sands are generated in which the seed of natures is preserved. And since things that are produced are nourished by the same and a similar substance from which they are begotten namely by a food in which the spirit of salt flourishes, purged from all elemental slime if they have a muddy and viscous nourishment they perish and are destroyed, as by that which is hostile and altogether contrary to their own seed; for they ought to be nourished by a like substance by which they were produced.

On the Boiling Springs which are in the District of Dax, in the Pyrenees
Chapter 4

Side margin - Boiling springs in the district of Dax.
Side margin - Whence the boiling springs.

In the district called Dax, situated in the very Pyrenean mountains toward the County of Foix, many springs are found which, stirred by a perpetual ebullition, grow so hot that raw meats and all other foods are perfectly cooked by that heat; so that one needs no other water for boiling food, but only that hot and seething water with which the springs swell and from it lyes are also prepared. Birds of every kind are scalded and plucked with it, and many other such conveniences for a household come from the mere use of these boiling waters.

Some springs are so hot that a whole ox thrown into them is straightway reduced to a thin pulp, the bones alone remaining sound and floating on the water. Very many fires and flames burst forth violently from the springs themselves and from the earth around them. Hence a general conflagration of this village has arisen three or four times; wherefore the inhabitants have been compelled to build their houses like furnaces, of stone, with no timbers or planks inserted, lest they be consumed by these subterranean burnings, which from the underground fire arise with such force and violence that they scorch and devour whatever is set near them.

Almost the whole mountain here is sulphurous, and in its inmost bowels, by its pure sulphur, it conceives and sustains flames which very often break out with a rush and climb into the air. Whence all the springs found in these places grow warm and boil.

Side margin - The virtues of the boiling springs.

The abundant flowers of sulphur that are found upon the rocks on this very mountain are a sure sign that the interior of the mountain is sulphurous, or at least bituminous; and when these are set on fire, the purer and subtler part of the sulphur is sublimed into “flowers”, which cling to the rocks; but the moist, watery part of the sulphur itself what is also called the mountain vinegar evaporates, and, wherever it finds the mountain closed, in those very cavities it is distilled like in retorts into an acid liquor, which mixes with the springs and endows the springs with marvelous powers powers which none of the physicians of this province has yet recorded (I know not by what sleepy negligence), from which they ought at length to awaken. For if they would thoroughly examine this almost wholly sulphurous mountain and inquire into the powers and properties of sulphur attaching to these places, they would, without doubt, find all these springs excellent for curing every sort of ulcer and any scab; and, in ulcers of the lungs and phthisis, to cure or at least to mitigate and prolong life with astonishing virtues.

But it is necessary first that the sick free themselves of humoral overload and sludge with the proper medicines by bloodletting, before they bathe in the springs themselves (which they also have the means to make tepid).

Side margin - Doctors profit would cease if the springs virtues were known.

For their seething heat must be moderated by a bath constructed at some distance from the source, so that there the waters may be brought back to the due warmth; and in these they ought then to bathe with the stomach fasting for a full hour (or longer, if they can bear it); and from the bath they should they ought to be carried to bed, and there covered up so that they sweat copiously so that the blood may be freed from its salty and tartareous impurities, on which scabies and every kind of ulcer depend. Then the waters of the springs themselves should be drunk, cooled; and within fifteen days, or sooner, I think all who are ulcerous or scabrous can be cured by this method alone.

As for consumptives and those suffering from ulcers of the lungs, they should use those waters continually as a drink, and they should use the flowers of sulphur which are found on the rocks in these places as a condiment in place of salt. The inhabitants of this mountain could also build sweat-stoves in underground caverns where flames and fires issue forth; in these stoves the sick could sweat by the heat of the subterranean fire. The mud and slime found in the springs themselves could be used in place of ointments, by which ulcers could be brought to a scar. Thus this whole mountain could be made a temple of the ancients’ Aesculapius and Apollo, in which almost all sick people would be able to recover their health.

But alas! these springs cannot be made known, nor can their powers be celebrated by physicians, since some fear that their profit would cease if so great and so effective a natural virtue were made manifest. Yet there is no need of a physician for the power of the waters to be shown: it is clearer than the sun, and requires only experience, which the talk and chatter of physicians cannot drown out.

On the spring called Demaine, in Narbonese Gaul
Chapter 5

Side margin - The virtues of the Demaine spring.

In Narbonese Gaul (what our people in former times called Languedoc), toward the mountains, there is a spring in a village named Dumaine from which the spring takes its name. Its remarkable powers are for overcoming diseases of the liver and kidneys, with cooling and strengthening of those parts; thus it relieves, with very great comfort, stone, arthritis, and colic pain if it does not cure them outright. For it dissolves and changes the matter and cause of these ailments, attenuating their substance and, once made thin, evacuating it through the urine and through the insensible pores of our body.

These notable virtues depend on and proceed from the spirit of the world, which in this very spring has produced a most subtle spirit of salt. By its subtle essence it penetrates the whole water of the spring and is mingled with it; and, once united to the body of salt, it penetrates and dissolves the body’s tough, viscid, and slimy substances, and reduces them to their first chaos that is, into thin water and vapor.

Side margin - Chaos = vapor.
Side margin - The Dumaine spring’s powers come from a spirit of salt.

Which by the expulsive faculty are easily driven out together with the urine. Thus it destroys and expels the thick, viscous, and salty humors that are found in the liver and in the whole mass of the blood.

These powers and properties arise from nowhere else than from the spirit of the world, not from vitriol, nor from nitre, nor from sulphur, as some suppose those who opine that the bodies of those minerals are mixed into the spring water. But that opinion is refuted by the fact that, when the water of this spring is evaporated, none of those minerals is found; only sludge is discovered at the bottom of the evaporating vessel, which has none of the water’s virtues and contains no nitre, vitriol, or sulphur. Hence one must believe that this water contains none of those minerals, but that the powers it possesses come from some exceedingly volatile and subtle substance which has no fixed and permanent body; rather, being unfixed and volatile, so to speak, it is mingled with the spring water namely, from a spirit of some mineral salt. Upon this, as upon a formal and material cause, the remarkable virtues of the spring depend, by which all gross, tenacious, and tartareous humors are conquered and overcome; and hence all diseases that depend on those humors are driven away.

Side margin - Thermal waters are all stronger when a mineral spirit is administered.
Side margin - Method for taking the water of the Dumaine spring.

All physicians who come to this spring together with various sick people so as to be of help to them, that they may discharge the duties of their calling toward the illnesses with which they are held if they would give their patients spirit of salt, spirit of vitriol, spirit of sulphur, and the like mineral spirits to take, they would witness the marvellous powers of this spring for they are greatly multiplied by a mineral spirit taken inwardly, after the body has first been prepared by mineral purgations, which fit the body to receive those wondrous virtues of the spring.

For mineral and thermal waters, which obtain their powers from the spirit of the world enclosed in the earth, are more effective and more potent when a mineral spirit is added; and all bodies afflicted with diseases which admit some mineral purgation such as a purge of fixed salt, of vitriol, or of properly prepared antimony after this purge receive marvellous relief from drinking those mineral or thermal waters. Vegetable purgations, in fact, have almost no conformity with those waters, and therefore I do not advise using them (though they do no harm if one should use them).

Accordingly, if anyone sick at the very place Dumaine drinks the water of this spring, let him first be purged with prepared antimony, or with fixed salt of vitriol duly purified, three or four times. Then let him drink that water and add to each draught a few drops of spirit of salt or spirit of vitriol six or seven drops.

Side margin - Purgative gold.

And after eight or ten days, let him again be purged with the same antimony; and he will see the wonderful and astonishing powers of this water in cases of stones [calculus], for breaking up stones, curing colic pain, and opening all obstructions of the liver, kidneys, and mesentery.

There is also given a purgative Gold, by which all humors are safely, quickly, and pleasantly evacuated in due measure far more noble and effective than any antimonial preparation. This gold I reserve to myself alone as the highest secret of nature, discovered and devised by me; yet I will not refuse its use to all who seek it from me for the comfort of their diseases. It cures all intermittent fevers and even heals continuous fevers from the root, with no crisis expected, since it plucks up from the root all the peccant humors wherever they may lurk; and it does this without discomfort or violence, indeed it can even be administered to infants and sucklings, because while it purges it also strengthens and refreshes all the parts, invigorating and restoring the natural and vital heat.

If people who resort to thermal waters are purged with this gold, they will find the waters much more efficacious and powerful for beating back the diseases for which counsel is sought.

On the hot baths and springs of the place called Balaruc
Chapter 6

Side margin - On the baths of Balaruc.

In the furthest parts of Narbonese Gaul, toward Béziers and toward the Mediterranean Sea, there is a mountain at the place commonly called Balaruc. In it there gush forth springs of very hot, almost boiling water; from them a notable thermal bath is maintained, of wonderful and astonishing power for mitigating and curing paralysis, spasms, arthritis, and similar diseases.

This water is drunk, and it purges everywhere upwards and downwards, and especially by urine so that all obstructions are loosened; the thick and tenacious humors are attenuated and dissolved, and, thus dissolved and thinned, are expelled through all the body’s emunctories. Hence those who are afflicted with dropsy find there an almost complete and safe remedy provided that, after they have laid aside the foul mass of humors and evacuated every swelling, they then seek a remedy for the disordered state of the liver and the viscera. Those who suffer from diseases of the liver and spleen, who are scabrous, and who are eaten away by various ulcers, receive most certain relief in these thermal waters. For the copious and abundant salt throughout the whole mass of the blood which begets these bodily faults is evacuated and driven out, now by sweat, now by urine, now by vomit, and by a flux of the belly; so that the sick almost seem to grow young again in these springs.

All the physicians of this region especially those of Montpellier ascribe the remarkable virtues of these waters to vitriol and sulphur. They say that from vitriol it comes that the waters excite vomiting at the beginning and then cast down the humors by the lower passages, which, they add, is proper to vitriol. To sulphur they ascribe the fact that the waters taste and smell of sulphur’s sheen and mephitic odor. This is the reasoning of those physicians; with all due respect, it does not seem true to me. For if everything that purges by vomiting and by urine possessed the substance of vitriol, their opinion would be certain; but how many things there are among vegetables, animals, and minerals which purge in these ways and yet have no vitriolic substance! Otherwise vitriol would be the principle of those things, since it would communicate to them the formal principle of acting. By similar reasoning we can argue about sulphur: not everything that smells of sulphur has the substance of sulphur; for a single simple quality does not constitute the whole being there are many other things that compose the substance of sulphur.

Side margin - The virtue of the waters of Balaruc.

If vitriol and sulphur were found in these waters naturally and substantially, their opinion would be very true. But since nothing of vitriol or sulphur is found materially in the waters themselves, other reasons must be sought whence these waters have their powers and properties; for in inquiries about natural things, more should be granted to reason than to authority.

The properties and virtues of these waters depend, without doubt, on the waters themselves; no minerals are mixed in them from which they might receive these powers. They have them by their own natural spontaneity, and together with the waters there is born all that is ascribed to them. Rhubarb, colocynth, vitriol, sulphur, and all other natural things endowed with wondrous powers have their virtues from no other source than their own nature, which has communicated to them the notable gifts by which they are distinguished.

Thus also the thermal waters of Balaruc, and all others that are altogether endowed with marvelous virtues, draw their properties from nowhere else than from their own nature, or from the spirit of the world; which, while it brings forth springs, pours these remarkable properties into the waters by a wondrous influence of the stars and planets.

Side margin - How purgative powers arise from the spirit of the world.

But by what reasoning this is done by the spirit of the world, or by nature itself that must be examined more deeply: namely, in the very spirit of the world, which, by a special endowment, produces purgative powers both in animals, vegetables, and minerals; so from this we may clearly and openly understand whence these powers come, and how they are naturally implanted in these waters.

Whenever the spirit of the world undertakes the compositions and mixtures of things, and while it mixes the elements with their principles it does not thoroughly cook the elements of the mixture by the natural heat of those principles, but leaves them raw and undigested, such mixtures (when their elements are raw through the indigestion of the innate sulphur) have evacuative/purgative powers. So in natural springs the same thing happens: when their elements are not very well mingled, they remain raw and undigested together with their principles; and the elements themselves likewise remain raw and undigested because of the weak heat of the sulphur, being mixed with many crudities of the elements. Thus the gushings of these springs are crude and undigested, and their salt and mercury are crude and uncooked; whence that purgative and dejectant power in these springs takes its rise.

Side margin - Method of taking the waters of Balaruc.

When such waters are taken in great quantity and cannot be mastered and cooked by the digestive power of the stomach, then the crude salt and crude mercury which are most plentiful in these springs draw to themselves the crude mercury and uncooked salt of our body’s humors; and thus, joined together, they twitch and bite the inner parts of the stomach and intestines, and so rouse the expulsive faculty, and thus the humors that are contrary to nature, crude and undigested, are driven out; to the great benefit of all the sick.

These are the reasons which seem to me sure and true whence the virtues and properties of the waters of Balaruc have their origin; they cannot spring from any other source than this that nature itself, or the spirit of the world, while it brings forth the springs, produces very crude and undigested salt and mercury in those springs, and on these alone this purgative and evacuative power depends. Which power all physicians, if I mistake not, ought to turn to best account by following the right method, so that the sick may more easily obtain health from drinking these waters.

All ought to be purged according to the strength that has been granted them and according to the disease from which they wish and need to be cured. After a purge and, if it be helpful, blood-letting, let them drink the water at first three or four cups, increasing up to twenty, as is the custom. After they have drunk this water for ten or twelve days, they should rest, and by a cheerful manner of living drive off sadness. When these days are past, they should be purged again with some light and milder medicine, such as senna, manna, or rhubarb with cream of tartar, or with my purgative gold if it can be had. On the following day, after first taking an excellent broth, the patient must bathe and remain in the heat of the bath for an hour, or longer if possible, until sweat breaks out; then he must be carried from the bath to bed, and there be well dried with linens of his sweat. This method of bathing should be observed for four or five days, according to the needs of the illness; and when this is observed, the sick themselves have found the wondrous powers and properties of the thermal waters of Balaruc.”

On the hot baths and springs of the place called Montferran
Chapter 7

In the Pyrenean mountains, toward the district and province which we commonly call Sault, there is a mountain commonly named Montferran. At its base there is a remarkable spring which, with a hot upwelling, boils at all times; and there all the notable properties of this region’s springs are experienced for curing paralysis, spasms, arthritic diseases, colicky pains, and numbness of all the limbs.

Side margin - Praises and virtues of the water of Montferran.
Side margin - Minerals that do not partake of the nature of salt.

This water is very subtle and penetrating; it dissolves the viscous and tenacious humors it strengthens the native warmth of all the limbs, softens the nerves and muscles, and frees one from all humors against nature; so that, for curing arthritis and paralysis, no more effective or more powerful thermal bath can be found in this whole region nay, in all France.

I have seen paralytics wholly cured in every limb by bathing in that water alone, within fifteen days.

These remarkable virtues and properties with which this spring is adorned do not take their origin from sulphur nor from any other mineral; to think so is vain and ridiculous. No mineral is there mixed in, nor are the waters of this spring distinguished from other waters by anything except their simple heat; for which reason this virtue must be sought more deeply than in a mixture of minerals since minerals cannot communicate their power to water unless they have the nature and essence of salt. This is clear and manifest from springs that arise in the midst of mines of metals namely in mines of antimony, of marcasite, of quicksilver, and of realgar itself; for all these minerals communicate no virtue to the springs that arise in the very midst of their shafts.

Side margin - they communicate no virtue to the water
Side margin - By what reason minerals communicate virtues to waters
Side margin - Wine draws antimonial virtues

In the region of Poitou in France there is a well near the village commonly called Boupeyre, in a place named La Ramee, which well was dug within a vein of antimony. The water of that well, which drips drop by drop from an antimony lode into the shaft, retains none of antimony’s virtues; rather, it is excellent and easy to digest, and all the inhabitants of that place drink it; I myself drank it with no discomfort of my stomach, indeed with very great benefit and strengthening. By this experience we may be sure and taught that water which passes through mineral mines retains none of the virtues of those minerals.

The reason is obvious: metals and many other minerals that do not partake of the nature of salt are fixed and perfectly coagulated; by this very fixedness and coagulation they can communicate no powers to the waters themselves that arise in their shafts, once the veins have been brought to their natural perfection. For only while they are still in being and the volatile spirits of the minerals remain, and they still have something seminal about them, can a very great power at that time be communicated to the waters themselves; otherwise they can impart no virtues to the waters.

This can be shown by an even stronger experiment. Take crude antimony and steep it in water, even tepid or hot, as long as you please you will find no antimonial virtues in such water, provided that no wine is mixed with the water; for wine, by its volatile salt, draws to itself the virtues of antimony and communicates them to itself.

Side margin - Whence springs have diverse properties”; “Whence the virtues of the waters of Montferran”; “The sea is the tomb of waters.”

This experience without any need of argument this experience, needing no arguments to support it, confirms as most certain what we have said about the power and property of thermal waters, and it convicts contrary reasonings of error. Therefore the virtues of these springs must most surely be placed in the spirit of the world: for when it brings forth the springs from a mixture of the elements, it imparts to them its powers to these greater, to those the greatest; to some it grants these properties, to others different ones. For it does not give to all springs the same and similar virtues, since even the very same springs are by no means alike both because they have a different native soil, and because they have also a different sky, by which that heavenly spirit, the father of springs, is diversified and varied.

Let us then assert, with much reason and experience, that the notable virtues and properties which are in the thermal waters of Montferran in the Pyrenees depend on and arise from that innate heat of the spring which this spring received from the heavenly spirit at its first production, and which it still receives day by day. For this spring, like all others, is produced and comes into being daily; and what is produced and has come into being is drained away and flows into little streams, and with great force it tends toward its tomb and its own extinction, namely toward the sea, where is the sepulchre of all waters; thither they hasten, that they may die and return to that from which they were made.

One must conclude that these waters are endowed with such great powers for curing arthritic pains and paralytic disorders; for these waters possess the quintessence of the Sun and of certain stars, by which they can almost raise the dead and rekindle our natural heat when it has been extinguished. In these waters swelling, as they do, with that heavenly heat and spirit it is very easy to revive and restore our heat, which has been obscured by many excrements of the humors; for like rejoices in like, and nature overcomes nature whence arthritis and paralysis are cured with little trouble.

Yet the virtue of these springs is increased if the sick are first purged with my cathartic gold, or with the hermetic powder, or with crocus of metals (antimonial saffron). For when the body has been purged in this way, the thermal waters will be much more efficacious and more powerful in subduing all ailments, since the body will have been freed from thick and viscid humors, which the waters themselves cannot easily drive out because of their tenacity and stickiness.

When these humors have been purged, the patients’ native heat is increased; thus day by day they gain vigor from the thermal water itself, and become still livelier and stronger, if they also use a sudorific, or a universal bezoar, in the amount of six or eight grains, with a little juice, or cinnamon-water, when they enter the bath; with these few remedies, very mild and very easy to take (and pleasant to the palate), the virtue of this water is strengthened, so that arthritis and paralysis are wholly overcome by the use of these waters. After the sick have bathed in this way for eight or ten days, they may again be purged with the medicines prescribed above and bathe again; and, on coming out of the bath, they may be anointed with the essence of human fat, or of bear’s fat, which are most easily prepared.

Let the fat be distilled in a retort, and thrice or four times rectified in the same retort, until, when cold, it no longer sets but remains liquid. Into this essence, thus prepared, the flowers of rosemary, sage, melilot, and chamomile may be infused; and a little saffron, cloves, and cinnamon may be added. Thence there is made a marvellous balsam for mitigating arthritic pains and overcoming paralytic affections of the limbs; and thus those disorders which are incurable by common remedies are, in these thermal waters, by this light and easy method, subdued.

On the springs and thermal baths of the place called Bagnères
Chapter 8

Among the Bigerrenses in the Pyrenean mountains there is a village commonly called Baignères perhaps for no other reason than that in this place there are many baths; whence in French it is called Baignères from the baths that are there.
For many springs are found here whose hot or warm outflow makes up thermal baths, for curing almost all diseases, especially paralysis, arthritic and colicky pains, jaundice, long-standing and inexhaustible catarrhs, headaches, obstructions of the mesentery, liver, and kidneys, ill-conditioned ulcers, and many similar ailments of our body.

Side margin - By what method ulcers are cured by the mud of the thermal waters.

These thermal waters differ and are distinct from the thermal waters of Montferran: for the baths of Baignères suit many diseases for which the baths of Montferran do not. For these baths are compound and not simple; there are many distinct qualities and differences that constitute these thermal waters, which although distinct and varied nevertheless all these things descend from one and the same source namely from the Spirit of the World which, in these hot waters, has produced a kind of excrementitious and viscous mercury together with an earthy, muddy salt, and with a little sulphur; and that sulphur is impure, which, when it is joined with its mercury and with the muddy salt, produces viscous, tenacious, fatty [matters]; whence there is formed a rich, greasy mud endowed with a very drying power, by which almost all ulcers are brought to a scar.

For the salt that lies hidden in this very mud, since it is sweet, tempers the sharp and biting salt of all ulcers and checks its acrimony by its own sweetness; and so it alters its nature, and ulcers are thereby carried to scarring especially if the sick bathe in these baths and, after the bath, bring on a sweat. For by these sweats that subtle and volatile portion of the very salt sharp and biting, the constituent of the ulcer is driven out and expelled; whereas what remains in the ulcer is easily moderated by the sweet and temperate salt that is naturally inborn in these muds and slimes.

Side margin - What the waters of the place Bagnères are.

Side margin - Method of bathing in the baths at Bagnères.

The spring-head of this fountain possesses powers stronger and more efficacious than the mud itself, which is nothing other than a certain clayey earth mixed with an impure portion of sulphur and of mercury, and with the salt that constitutes the spring whence its virtue. For crude and undigested salt, together with mercury, and [when] the salt is cooked and digested, penetrate bodies, they open the pores; they thin the humors; and the sulfur that lies hidden in that spring strengthens the natural heat, which makes the power and property of the other two principles even subtler and more effective; hence paralytics, arthritic pains, migraine, catarrhs, and all ulcers are overcome.

This will be obtained even more easily if the sick observe a certain particular method in taking the baths and the hot waters themselves. First, they must rest in the very place of the baths; then, after one day or another has passed, let them be purged with my aurific powder, or with the hermetic powder, or with the saffron of the metals. After the purge has been repeated three or four times, the baths are then to be entered, and for eight or ten following days one should sweat there as much as possible; and, so that copious sweats may break forth without discomfort, it is advisable that all the sick take four or six grains of the ‘golden sudorific’ with a little broth; or, if there is not a supply of that sudorific gold, let them take the same amount of grey amber, in a raw egg to be sipped (in ovo sorbili), so that the tartareous, viscid, and tenacious humors may be thoroughly dissolved and thinned. And if certain ulcers are present, it is necessary that they be covered with that mud as with a marvelous ointment, before they bathe, and that in the bath they be wiped clean of that very mud and be very well cleansed.

Side margin - How the patient’s diseases are to be treated.

After these days have passed, it is necessary that the patient be purged again if the diseases are obstinate; for long and chronic illnesses cannot be cured suddenly, except by long use of remedies and by the patient’s persistent endurance.

There are, moreover, many among the sick who, before they make use of these thermal waters of the place Bagnères, drink the waters of the place Dencausse, which is not far from these baths; a practice that I highly approve, for by those waters they are purged. But the waters themselves of this place Dencausse require a preparation of the sufferers, which we have set forth in its own special chapter.

Those, however, who will use the medicaments previously mentioned, and the waters themselves of this place Dencausse, will experience the wonderful power and property of these hot baths of Bagnères.

Perhaps some physician will marvel that, in preparing bodies to make use of the thermal waters, I have never employed rhubarb, senna, agaric, or some purging electuary according to ancient doctrine. The reason is at hand: for by experience itself and by reasoning I have learned that these medicaments cannot remove the roots of chronic and inveterate diseases, whereas these medicaments prepared from minerals do so. Yet I do not disapprove the use of rhubarb, senna, and agaric, and of all the other medicaments which the common and ordinary healing art employs.

Side margin - Reason why, when taking thermal waters, mineral medicaments should be taken.

I always choose the stronger ones, that is stronger and more efficacious remedies, so that the roots of these diseases may be thoroughly torn out. I add that I have found by experience that mineral remedies act more strongly and more effectively upon diseases together with thermal waters than do remedies drawn from the class of vegetables; for minerals have with minerals a stronger ‘idiopathy’ (proper affinity). Whence the thermal waters, since they are mineral, and whatever power they have they take from a source and principle of minerals: when they are joined with mineral remedies, they display powers that are astonishing and altogether marvelous. These waters are called ‘mineral,’ not because they contain minerals within themselves as almost all, even the learned, have believed but because they are produced in the hollows of the earth and in its bowels, like minerals.

Side margin - Why thermal waters are called mineral.

OF THE SPRINGS OF THE PLACE Dencausse
CHAPTER 9.

Not far from the very baths of the place Bagnères there is a mountain called Dencausse, in which there gush forth springs of wondrous virtue, to which there to these springs come myriads from every region of the world; and for the convenience of the sick many buildings have been erected, which make up a little town of the same name, abounding in every necessary for life and supplying in plenty all the invalids who flock hither.

The remarkable powers of these fountains are chiefly shown in curing all the diseases of women that depend upon the womb; and especially they take away the sterility of women and bring on fruitfulness, by opening all obstructions, correcting a chill intemperament, strengthening the womb, provoking the menses, and evacuating sharp and biting acrimonies which inflame the liver and the blood whence arise ulcers and erysipelatous eruptions by which barren women are wont to be held because they are accustomed to be purged of the acridities by which they are swollen.

Moreover, since these waters commonly open and carry off all obstructions, remove the acrimonies of women’s blood, and strengthen the native heat, it is impossible that they should not be delivered from almost all the maladies with which they are usually afflicted, by the drinking of these waters waters which Nature seems to have produced in favor of women. I do not think a place can be found, in all Europe itself, more fitting and more useful to the temperament of women. The air is, first of all, exceedingly pure and very temperate; the weather is changed neither by heat nor by excessive cold, because it is not disturbed by the winds do not disturb the weather here; only gentle and moderate Zephyrs arise, which drive off and scatter the exhalations and vapors of the mountains. There is great plenty of milk, butter, and cheese, of grain and wine; and the other conveniences of human life not only abound but are poured forth in profusion. The inhabitants of this climate are most courteous, and obliging toward strangers. It is by no means a rough province, nor barren, nor desert, but everywhere adorned with the cultivation of husbandry, and everywhere set off with farmsteads and villages an evident mark of the fertility of the place.

Nor without reason do I proceed to describe the fertility and goodness of the district, since these arise from the remarkable virtues of its waters. For the notable out-springings of the fountains that grace these mountains impart to them likewise fertility and abundance of provisions for man. No one has ever seen nor will anyone ever see a spring of distinguished virtues in a sterile and desert place; for fertility and fruitfulness are from waters. Hence I have described the fertility of the region, that the wise may gather how great is the power of the waters which irrigate this land.

Moreover it is known to all that the earth’s fertility depends upon the Spirit of the world and of Nature He who in the sacred writings is called the Spirit of the Lord; whence that saying: ‘Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth’ which, in very truth and in a material sense, is celebrated every year in springtime, when this Spirit flows forth in abundance and the whole face of the earth is seen adorned with new shoots and seems, as it were, renewed. This is the true Spirit by which alone, and by no other, the earth is adorned with fruits. And since this place of Dencausse abounds and swells with this Spirit which is the first principle and foundation of fertility and fecundity it is no wonder if the waters that spring up here possess fecundity, and prove vigorous in driving away the barrenness of women; for the principle of fertility swells and thrives in these very waters. This is the innate and vital warmth of that luminous Spirit, which, through celestial influences, descends upon the lands and renders them fruitful; otherwise they remain sterile and unproductive for the earth is truly empty and void if it is deprived of that luminous Spirit.

That this is so can be proved by daily experience in these places: from the fruitfulness of the harvests the inhabitants forecast the goodness of the waters of this locality; and from the barrenness of the harvests, by the same reasoning, they infer the sterile and empty powers of this spring. Hence is gathered the reason why very often these fountains are sterile and stripped of their customary virtues namely, because at times that native heat, or the spirit of fertility of this province, does not thrive in the waters themselves in the degree in which it ought to thrive, so as to bring forth those notable powers which it promises, when thrives and swells.

Side margin - Whence it happens that thermal waters become sterile.

This is the true and lawful reason why the virtues of the waters of Dencausse sometimes suffer an eclipse: not from any defect of vitriol or of sulphur whose vapors, in certain years, are barren and (as some opine) leave the waters empty but solely from a defect of the world-spirit and of native heat. When this is not copiously mingled with the waters, the water is very raw and undigested; whence great crudities arise in all who drink these waters in a time of sterility. Hence too these waters are wont to be more powerful and efficacious when drunk fresh at the very spring than when carried off to distant regions; for that spiritual virtue, once set in motion, vanishes, however firmly it be shut up and transported in glass vessels with the strongest stoppers. Nevertheless there are years in which this virtue is so abundant and swelling that, although it be conveyed into foreign provinces, provided the glass vessels in which it is enclosed are well sealed, it suffers no harm or loss.

It only requires that the vessel in which the water itself is contained be warmed, in the midst of tepid water, so that the spirituous virtue of the water may be stirred up; in all other respects one must observe the same method that is observed on the very spot at Dencausse.

Side margin - Why the virtue of the Dencausse water, when carried far, becomes barren.
Side margin - Method of taking the water of the Dencausse spring.

First of all the body must be purged with some gentle evacuant such as senna, rhubarb, manna, or some other medicament taken from the stock of minerals and prepared chymically which may dispose the body will dispose and prepare the body more effectually and more powerfully to receive the virtues of these waters.

When therefore the body has been thus purged and prepared, the waters are to be drunk according to the custom of the place. During the first days three or four cups are to be quaffed; then one must walk about as much as may be, even unto weariness. On the days that follow, the dose must always be increased, and the number of cups likewise multiplied, so that at the end of the days one comes at last even unto twenty.

And this water is to be drunk for fifteen or twenty days: thus the dregs of all the humors are most excellently wiped away and evacuated. When these days are past, if aught of the root of the disease still remains which cannot be plucked out, the baths of the place of Bagnères will root it out; and in them that must be observed which we declared in the preceding chapter.

Concerning the springs and the thermal baths of the place of Barèges.
Chapter 10.

Not far from the very baths of Bagnères, in the Pyrenean mountains themselves, there are further springs in the place or mountain called Barèges, which constitute baths and bathing places of wondrous powers and properties. This place is very desolate and almost dreadful to behold, since the cliffs are exceedingly high and there are many precipices; nor can the place be reached by horses or carriages, but only on foot to the great inconvenience of the sick, who, that they may be conveyed hither, must be carried in a chair (sedan). From Bagnères as far as the valley of Campan the way is still gentle and fair; for this valley appears very beautiful and comely, adorned with meadows and with trees, cut through by very many little streams whose sweet murmur soothes the ears of passers-by; and in the valley itself there are very many villages scattered here and there, full of shepherds and flocks, by which these meadows everywhere grow luxuriant, whence great profit and revenue are derived.

On the mountain of Barèges itself, where the hot springs are, there are only four or five very small houses, of which only one is set aside to lodge arrivals much to everyone’s inconvenience. Nevertheless the guests are received with cheerful countenance, and whatever is in the house is offered and handed over with a liberal hand and friendly good-will.

The baths at Barèges have astounding powers for healing wounds; and as for all the symptoms that follow them limbs grown numb and deprived of all movement by the very wounds and bruises they restore them by a marvellous virtue. They draw lead out of wounds; they even bring them to cicatrization, and then open the scar so that the very lead which caused the wound may be forced out. They also extract other foreign matters from any kind of wound with wonderful efficacy, so that, in the cure of wounds, nothing more excellent is to be found in all Europe. For the pains of arthritis too, for paralysis, and for limbs afflicted with torpor and bereft of their native warmth because of obstructions of the nerves, I have seen no baths more effective; for in these baths there is, as it seems, a certain balsamic power and property by whose help these marvels are accomplished. And this power, together with the outflow of these springs, is produced by the innate and proper virtue of the world-spirit.

The flow of this spring is tasteless and has no smell; yet some maintain that it smells of sulfur; but such men must surpass even dogs in sense of smell dogs who gladly drink and quaff that water for if it had a sulfurous reek, this certainly would not happen, since dogs do not like sulfur.

Therefore I do not think that material sulfur can lie hidden in the waters themselves. I would rather believe that the seed of sulfur, before it has congealed into sulfur, can be mingled in these waters; yet the seed of sulfur differs greatly from common, vulgar sulfur. For common sulfur is first coagulated and made a mixture and contains very many impure, earthy dregs; whereas the seed of sulfur is something simple uncoagulated and not a made mixture and it does not swell with so many impure, earthly excrements as does common and vulgar sulfur. Nevertheless, that seed of sulfur does indeed have its radical, crude moisture; yet its innate warmth is marked by wondrous powers because of the light, or spirit of light, which it holds abundantly within itself. From this proceeds that power of healing wounds and strengthening wounded limbs; this alone is the spirit of light which effects these things by strengthening our inner spirit of light, as being in every respect akin to it.

This is what compels me to the view that all the remarkable virtues of these hot baths depend upon the simple seed and not-yet-coagulated seed of sulfur these are the reasons: because sulfur grows abundantly in these mountains, and almost everywhere “flowers of sulfur” are gathered upon the rocks. Sulfur also burns in the innermost parts of these mountains; whence these springs are hot, for as the waters pass through places where the sulfur boils and burns, they are warmed in passing and the springs burst forth heated. But the sulfur there is generated and brought forth by the mineral spirit, which is the vapor of all the elements; and by ascending and descending it becomes mineral water. And this water, passing through places of impure and clayey earth, is joined to that earth, and together with it, by inner heat, they are coagulated into common, ordinary sulfur.

And when by the regular kindlings [[reading uncertain]] that occur each year that sulfur, generated and produced in the cavities of the earth, takes fire and burns while it burns and is consumed, the outlets of all the springs that are found nearby grow hot; and through that heat a very thin portion of the waters is carried off into vapor and penetrates the earth and becomes impregnated with the force and property of seminal operations. This vapor then again becomes water, and together with the spring’s outflow it runs forth and communicates to the fountains the virtues which it bears. Sometimes these seminal virtues of minerals are produced together with the spring water itself; for whatever exists in the order of things has its origin from water, and in it takes its origin from the water itself; which indeed is not simple, elemental water, but something mixed carrying with it and holding within itself the virtues, properties, and essences of the other elements.

Nor, I beg, should anyone think that these mineral virtues are present in springs because of the heating of these waters in the bowels of the earth; that, when they boil in the earth’s depths, by boiling they draw and entice these virtues from the earth’s entrails. For from this heating they receive nothing except simple warmth, which communicates to those waters no power other than that of heating. And although the waters were cold, nevertheless they would have just as much virtue as they have; it is only that by that external and accidental heat these virtues and properties are brought into act. This is proved by experience, when we are compelled to warm the mineral waters themselves so that we may rouse the natural power they possess and bring it into act, when they are carried to distant and far-off regions.

We therefore affirm that the virtues and properties of the thermal waters of Barèges depend upon a seed of sulphur sufficiently pure and bright, not yet coagulated and frozen into the body of common sulphur; rather it is something volatile and unfixed, spiritual, subtle, and vaporous, and by its fineness wherein it excels it insinuates itself into the thermal waters and adorns them with wondrous and astonishing powers.

Which in order to we can make them more powerful and effective by the disposition of the patient; for the patient receives more or less of the virtue according to the disposition he has for receiving these virtues.

Patients, moreover, are properly prepared in every case if before they enter these baths they are purged once, twice, thrice, or even four times with cathartic medicines taken from the family of minerals, according to the requirement of the disease and the patient’s strength. And then, when they enter the baths themselves, let them take four grains of grey amber in a swallowable egg yolk, or four drops of the essence of white amber, or six drops of the essence of cinnamon, or of rosemary, or of sage; for these essences strengthen the mineral virtue of the waters and make it stronger and more efficacious, because they reinforce our vital heat, which brings the virtues of all medicines into act.

Anointings also with a certain balm, on leaving the bath, are wonderfully effective, since they refresh the nerves and muscles such anointings may be with puppy-balm, together with balsam of sulphur and spirit of wine, and with the essence of human fat, or of bear or stag. All these help in a remarkable way, so that the power of these thermal baths may become more potent and efficacious.

On the waters and springs of Vic-le-Comte.
Chapter 11

In the county of Auvergne, where the land is very fertile and, as it were, the paradise of that province, there is a village called Vic-le-Comte. Outside its walls there is a cliff on which two springs are found: one is called in the common tongue La fontaine du Cornet, the other La fontaine du Rocher. Both have the same, similar power, and they contain dissolved vitriol as is evident from the taste itself and from another test, namely distillation, by which, when it is performed, true vitriol is found at the bottom of the alembic; and if galls are applied to these waters, they turn the water into ink. These are true and legitimate signs of vitriol being mixed in; by whose benefit alone the waters themselves provoke vomiting, and purge everywhere both upward and downward, and with such violence that at times they bring on dysenteries and dangerous flows of blood. For vitriol is sharp and biting and corrosive, nor does it lay aside its acrimony by the mere admixture of the waters. Hence, when in the bodies of certain persons there are found sharp and biting humors like to vitriol, the vitriol joins itself to these humors and, together with them, brings about notable and even violent purgations even with blood because of the corrosion it excites in the intestines.

Although these springs possess this corrosive faculty and power of vitriol, nevertheless they are not to be despised; for they benefit many who abound in viscid humors and suffer obstructions of the liver, spleen, and mesentery; for vitriol opens very greatly. And though it is sharp and biting, its acrimony and mordacity can be corrected by mixing in fresh water and the brook that flows in that valley. And in the midst of it there is a bubbling spring of water, from which a thermal bath of wonderful virtue might be made, which would equal the powers of the hot waters of Mont-Dore, which stand near this place.

These springs of Vic-le-Comte, besides those notable purgative powers which they possess from vitriol, have moreover many other, more hidden properties which they obtain from the spirit of salt or of vitriol produced in the very spring; by whose aid they unbar all obstructions, expel stones and every beginning of stone to the outside, soothe the pain of colic and of arthritis; yea, even the first elements and seeds of leprosy they drive off and disperse sharp, viscid, and tenacious humors, and by evacuating these “salted” humors change the temperament itself. Hence all ulcers and scirrhous swellings are treated with ease by these waters, since blood that is altogether sharp and biting, melancholic and serous, is readily evacuated both by vomiting and by stool, and by the hemorrhoids. Therefore scarcely any disease can be named which cannot be cured by these waters. Goiters (strumae) can be brought, by these waters, to a well-formed scar; especially if, after a purge, the goiters themselves are frequently washed with the very spring-water, vitriol being added so that the cleansing power is multiplied. With this same water, two or three times a day, those scrofulous ulcers are to be washed and cleansed; then there is to be laid on a balsam of sulphur mixed with that very water of this spring, prepared in the following manner:

Take 🜩 Jupiter balsam of sulphur (prepared with nut-oil);
add 3 ounces of the best wax;
and 1 dram of camphor dissolved in sweet-almond oil.

Mix the whole together and melt over a gentle fire; and when everything is melted and very well blended, add a little of this spring-water and stir until incorporated; then add again a little of the same spring-water and stir again until incorporated. This must be repeated many times until 2 drams of water have been incorporated; then let the mixture rest for a time. This balsam is to be used for ulcers which and for treating and cicatrizing whatever ulcers. A little sugar and a tincture of saffron extracted with this very spring water can also be added, and the balm will be more potent for curing ulcers.

As for drinking these waters, no bodily preparation is required beforehand; only a little of this water should be taken at the beginning, and it should further be corrected with fresh (‘sweet’) water, lest the sharpness of the vitriol with which these waters swell harm the stomach and intestines a point perhaps not yet noted by any physicians; nevertheless, experience will find this most certain.

On the waters and springs of Mont-Dor
Chapter 12

In the county of Auvergne, not far from the place described above, Vic-le-Comte, there is a mountain commonly called Mont-Dor, where there are gushings of boiling water, where baths are established of wondrous power for curing arthritic pains, paralysis, spasms, and numbness of the limbs, and for driving away other similar diseases. For the natural celestial heat implanted that heat which in these waters swells and abounds thins the viscid, cold, and moist humors and drives them out through the pores of the body, the pores being opened and copious sweats drawn forth; and thus the nerves and the muscles are strengthened and brought back to their natural state, the humors being dispersed which hinder and retard their functions and use.

Now this water, because it abounds and is charged with that celestial heat by which the innate heat of each thing is generated and produced, by its own peculiar and natural virtue effects this: it refreshes the nerves, muscles, tendons, and the cartilages of all the members, by that heavenly power flowing from the stars into the earth and especially into this mountain, in which very many springs are found whose powers and properties, if they were investigated, would surely cause the virtues of other springs not to be so highly extolled, for the virtues of these would diminish the repute of the others.

Perhaps some will object that I relate many things about the rise of the springs of this place of Mont-Dor, yet prove nothing; for by merely asserting that the virtues and properties of these springs depend upon the stars, which by a peculiar influx impart into these springs the power of strengthening the nerves and muscles, one says almost nothing, since it is universally known that the virtues of all things descend from heaven to the earth. I reply that I sufficiently show and prove, while [demonstrating] this peculiar power of strengthening, I prove that they descend from the particular stars which predominate over the mountain. For this assertion and demonstration is greater than that which claims and shows that these virtues depend on a mixture of minerals found in the very bowels of the mountain; for that assertion does not demonstrate what these minerals are, nor by what means such minerals could bestow and communicate to the springs that very thing which they themselves do not possess. For these springs have more virtue than the universal minerals of the earth; and very often these springs have none of the common mineral virtues, but others far more excellent.

I, however, while asserting and demonstrating that this power descends from particular stars into this mountain, show to philosophers and to all men endowed with sharp wit by what rationale and by what path the heavenly influences and the rays of the planets and all the stars are united to the earth, through the mediation of the spirit of the world (the bearer of these influxes), and are joined to the earth and to all things generated in the earth. And thus the celestial virtues and properties assume a specific and individual power of acting, because, when they are produced, they are joined to particular mixtures. Moreover, they are joined more and more to one mixture than to another, because this particular mixture has a greater power of attraction by reason of the sympathy and likeness which it has with the influx and the ray which it (the mixture) attracts more than do the other mixtures produced in the same place; for since they have no sympathy and likeness with the influencing star, they do not attract this particular power, but another, with which they have a more conformable essence. For the stars in almost all places exert their influence, and the mixtures found in any place each receive from the stars that which is suited to them and sympathetic to them, while they reject what is different. But if what descends from the stars is entirely contrary and hostile to certain kinds of mixtures, that kind is in no way produced nor generated in the place into which such an influx descends.

We can say the very same of springs: they draw to themselves the celestial influx and power with which they are in conformity; and thus in some mountains the springs become more efficacious than in others. Therefore we may reasonably conclude that the virtues and properties of the waters and springs of this place of Mont-Dor depend on the particular stars and constellations whose influences are here at work. Now this peculiar influx of those stars is nothing other than the very light of the stars with which they irradiate and illumine this mountain; and that light is incorporated with and mingled into the spirit and radical moisture of this place, from which these springs are produced; and thus this peculiar light is communicated to the springs of this place, from which those remarkable virtues and properties arise.

Those who use these thermal waters ought to observe this precaution: their bodies should first be prepared by purgations. But those who have previously been purged by the waters of Vic-le-Comte do not need that preparation, since they have been sufficiently purified by those waters.

Those, however, who cannot be purged by such waters should take rhubarb or senna or manna, or some other medicine by which the foul residue of the humors is removed; or let them be purged with my cathartic gold, if they can obtain it. For that very medicine possesses a peculiar power to move all these springs to a wondrous and astonishing activity, because of the conformity and sympathy it has with the rays and celestial influxes from which these springs acquire their virtues.

On the hot baths and springs of the place Aigues-Chaudes
Chapter 13

There are still in the same county of Auvergne springs of boiling water, which arise out of the ground, in a certain valley where there is a village commonly called Caudes-Aygues, so named because these springs are very hot and boiling; whence the common name by which the village is designated has that very sense. These hot baths are very efficacious, and much more powerful than the waters of Mont-Dor itself: they are suitable for paralytics, arthritics, those afflicted with spasm and numbness of the limbs, and other similar diseases; for the cure of these an almost countless number of sufferers are brought hither from distant provinces, so that they may bathe here in spring and in autumn at which seasons these baths excel and are most effective in curing such diseases.

Almost all physicians think that the virtues of these hot baths depend solely on the heat of sulphur which burns and smolders in the bowels of the earth, and that by burning it warms those waters and, by warming, communicates to the waters those remarkable powers. But that assertion though widely repeated is rather ridiculous; for how can burning sulphur communicate virtues which it does not itself possess? For these thermal waters have many virtues distinct and different from sulphur itself; therefore they must needs have them from some other source.

Sometimes also, and very often, it happens that what burns and is consumed in the bowels of the earth is not common sulphur but something else different from such common sulfur such as coal, bitumen, or something similar which burns in the bowels of the earth, and by its burning heats the outgushing of the waters: but what kind of virtue can from that come to be in the very springs?

Nevertheless, if someone should wish to assert that these earthy and sulfurous greases, although impure, are in the very act of combustion reduced to their first matter and principles, and thus are purified and freed from every impurity of their matter, and so are reduced and transformed into spiritual substances, and thus can be mixed with the springs and communicate to the springs present there their own virtues and properties in every respect this we grant can happen, and we often affirm that it does happen. But then the powers are not those of common, vulgar sulfur, nor of stone-coal, nor of any other earthy fatness burning in the bowels of the earth; rather they are the virtues and properties of mineral principles those principles by which the minerals in the earth’s bowels were composed which by combustion and putrefaction have been reduced to their principles and thus have freed themselves from all rottenness and the foulness of the elements with which they were befouled in their elementary mixture. Thus, once freed from such mixture, they are no longer those mixtures, nor do the qualities of those mixtures any longer prevail, but others far greater and more powerful, which have their origin from the first principles.

Therefore we can assert that these baths possess the virtues of sulphur, salt, and mercury not of common and vulgar sulphur, salt, and mercury, but of sulphur, salt, and mercury as principles, and of the seed of mineral things.

Thus it comes to the same point: these virtues, in general, depend upon the spirit of the world, which displays its own distinct and diverse powers and properties according to the diversity of places and the differentiation of celestial influxes.

Accordingly, we may say that the virtues and properties of the waters at the place of Caudes-Aygues depend upon this same spirit of the world, and that they are diverse and distinct on account of the particular place in which they are produced and the star that exerts a particular influence upon that very place. But to declare what star it is that, by its peculiar influx, illumines this spot is a matter of very lofty inquiry, since in Auvergne many stars hold dominion over this province. Nevertheless, if we consider the whole of France, we find it, with its provinces, situated under the Tropic of Cancer in the northern temperate zone, toward the north, where the constellations called Lyra, Corona, Cassiopeia, Sagitta (“Telum”), Cygnus, Orion, Ophiuchus, and many others hold sway if the properties of these constellations, together with the virtues of these, of the thermal waters be considered, it will not be very difficult to conjecture that Corona is the constellation that exerts a particular influence on this place, together with Mars. For Mars and Corona especially impart virtues that strengthen all the members of the body, together with the other stars that serve this planet and constellation.

If anyone wishes to enjoy the powers and benefits of these waters, the body must first be purged with remedies taken from the mineral family especially with salt of vitriol, or with prepared antimony, or with my cathartic gold. After the body has thus been evacuated, one may bathe, having taken a sudorific gold (aurum sudorificum), or grey amber, or mineral bezoar, to the amount of about eight grains in the best little draught. In this way the natural heat, refreshed and stirred by the heat of the bath, will drive all the humors outward and attenuate what is hidden, so that through the pores of the body they may be evacuated by insensible transpiration.

After the body has been thus evacuated by those sweats of the hot waters, if any illness still remain, the body may again be purged with some light medicine pure senna, or manna, or rhubarb; then one may enter the bath again three or four times. And on leaving the bath, after the sweats have passed, the body, or the parts of the body that ache and are affected, may be anointed with this balm, by which the members entirely they will, God granting, be restored to their former health.

Take one pound of human fat (or of bear’s fat) and distil it through a retort, rectifying it three or four times. To this rectified essence add essence of rosemary and of sage, two drachms each; mix together, and into this pour cloves, cinnamon, saffron, and nutmeg, two drachms each; let them steep in warm ashes for one night. Then strain, and to the strained liquor add four drachms of the best melted wax, and mix all together: you will have a balm than which I have seen none more powerful or effective for soothing cold arthritic pains and for refreshing members affected by numbness and paralysis. If you use this balm after the sweats produced in the thermal baths, you will experience wonderful and astonishing effects: indeed, by this method the body is, as it were, made young again and casts off its old skin.

On the spring which is found in the suburb of Clermont in Auvergne
Chapter 14

This spring is marvelous and astonishing, and it puts to the test and vexes almost all philosophers’ wits in seeking out the causes of its astounding effects, it issues from a rock, and at the very outlet it produces rocky crusts and white stones; so that the inhabitants of this city, when they wish to build bridges in order to cross the little stream of this spring to visit their gardens, make the water of this spring leap over planks set up in an arched fashion, and within twenty-four hours they have a solid stone bridge, so that they may pass the rivulet dry-shod.

The water of this spring is visibly changed into stone, and yet it flows continually like other springs. Its water is very clear, nor does it differ in color and limpidity from other fountains. Dumb animals, pressed by thirst, are deceived and would drink the water unless prevented; but if they do drink it, straightway in the stomach it coagulates into stone; whence death follows from the colic that then arises, which kills with the most cruel torments all the beasts that have drunk the water. For this reason the inhabitants, with the greatest caution, keep all their animals away and far from the spring itself. The water itself is a most deadly poison to all living creatures that drink it.

For when it is drawn from its source, it is immediately turned into stone a fact which the inhabitants make manifest to all, by many experiments, to those who do not believe this wonder of nature. They take the water into a glass vessel, and at once the water congeals into a stone that obscures the shape of the glass; they take an earthen vessel and fill it with the water, and in a very short time the water itself is condensed into stone, which retains the shape of the vessel that contains it. All marvel at this wonder of nature; yet I do not think there have been any who have devised natural reasons for this matter.

If they were versed in the chemical art, they would know by it in what manner and by what power all stones are made and produced in the course of things; for in this spring the efficient cause of stones is most powerful. It must therefore be inquired what the efficient cause of all stones is like.

We said in the first book of this work, when we were discussing these petrifying springs, that this marvel of nature in these fountains depends on the spirit of the world. It remains now to show by what virtue the spirit of the world produces a stony substance in this spring.

From the doctrine of the chemists it is clear that in the spirit of the world three substances lie hidden namely sulphur, mercury, and salt. By sulphur we understand the natural heat, the innate warmth of all things. By mercury we mean the well-known radical moisture. By salt, the bodily substance in which the innate heat and the primeval moisture are united and become visible. Salt is the knot and bond of heat and moisture: the innate heat ripens and cooks; the moisture nourishes and increases; but salt condenses, coagulates, and makes things visible.

Therefore, in the production of this spring, Nature through a particular operation from a particular star and the celestial power proceeding from it has multiplied the power and property of the principle of salt and set its efficacy far above the other two principles. Thus, when the water of the spring itself bursts forth from its source, it is straightway congealed into stone by the virtue of its own principle of salt, in which this spring is especially vigorous; accordingly this water is frozen into stone by the coagulating power of its proper principle of salt, by which it thrives and prevails.

All stones, cliffs, and rocks whatsoever in nature were, at the beginning of their origin, water; but the innate heat, acting upon the moisture, dries it up and causes that natural dryness to appear which we call salt, by whose power the water is frozen into stone. Before this power was made manifest while it lay hidden in the center of the water the watery moisture and its power were evident, and the thing was truly water.

In the liquid of this very spring we see the visible operation of the innate heat upon the moisture itself: as it dries it, it coagulates it into stone by the power of its own salt, which has its origin from the action of heat upon the moist.

If this spring did not break forth outward, but were shut up in the inmost bowels of the earth, it would become stone, and a stony mountain would arise.

Thus are all stones on earth made, and stony mountains as well. Water is sublimed and lifted into vapors through the pores of the earth; the innate heat of the water cooks that very water and gradually dries it; and by the power of the salt lying hidden within it, at length it is frozen into stone. And because the vapors tend upward and are raised into the air and are continually “cooked” and hardened by the virtue of their own salt, stony mountains are formed, which lift their heads toward heaven since the vapors strive upward; and as they are borne aloft, in that very elevation and sublimation they are congealed into stones.

But if the water or the vapors, as they rise aloft are mixed with clay and with a white, fatty earth, this matter is congealed by the coagulating power of salt into white marble. If, however, the earth with which the vapors are mingled is red, or of some other color, this matter is congealed into red marble, or marble of another color, according to the digestion and cooking of the sulphur that is mixed with the soils and colors them either strongly or weakly by its cooking; for all colors arise from the various cookings and digestions of sulphur.

Thus in the earth are generated the various kinds of marbles and stones of diverse colors, which are produced from the abyss and chaos of water that is, from the inner seed of all the elements, which lies hidden in the bowels of the water rather than in the other elements.

Side margin - Why the spring of Clermont produces white stones.

This spring of ours at Clermont produces white stones, because the sulphur is white which lies hidden in the seed; and the sulphur of this water is white because it is crude and undigested, and by reason of that indigestion and crudity it brings forth whiteness in the stones themselves.

In many other places stones are found of diverse colors, indeed compacted from different parts into a single solid mass such as talc, white crystalline stones that are transparent and shining; others are green and black, others reddish; and all these stones are condensed little by little into a solid mass, although they are of different kinds and various substances. This happens from the varied and distinct sulphureous substance that is found in that seed of the water; whence that distinction and variety of substances are found in one and the same heterogeneous subject yet this variety the coagulating power of salt drives and compacts into one, the variety of the sulphurs being, as it were, obscured.

What is white and transparent is congealed into crystal; but what is white and swells with the spirit of salt is congealed into talc. And because talc has white sulphur and very much salt, but little mercury, therefore, by the scarcity of mercury, it imitates more the nature of stones than of metals; nevertheless it retains a metallic (i.e., silvery) color from the white metallic sulphur which it contains.

These remarks are not useless for inquiring into the causes whence the spring of Clermont in Auvergne is changed into white stones. For this effect depends on a coagulating and congealing power, which is most powerful in the spring itself, from the spirit of the principle of salt that swells in the spring.

It is not much to be wondered at that this spring swells with and excels in this congealing principle; for all Auvergne abounds in the same principle whence those huge and very high mountains found throughout Auvergne have been formed, and that very great abundance of stones which there swells and abounds.

And if Auvergne also swells with and abounds in hay and pastures, this is from the plentiful mercury in which it likewise abounds. For when its mercurial moisture is condensed into stones, the more serous part that is, what savors of the nature of aqueous mercury being separated from the abundance of salt, remains and waters the earth and blesses it with its fertility; whence arise the abundant hay and those rich pastures. For the drier part of the mercury is changed into stones; the more watery and moist part into very rich hay, from which cows, goats, and sheep, being nourished, produce an abundance of milk; and from this comes that abundance of cheeses which, by their goodness and flavor, surpass almost all other cheeses of the land, because of the temperate and moderate natural salt which they receive from the milk, and the milk from the natural mercury which hay and pastures of this province is naturally infused, from which salt they receive that most pleasing flavor and long preservation.

But let us return to the spring. The stones that are produced from this spring are soft and friable, and never imitate the hardness of marble; for in the spring there is a slime of crude mercury, which hinders that hardness and firmness, since it is something heterogeneous, outside the nature of the natural principles, and thus prevents their perfect and complete union; and hence it delays the strength and solidity of the stones. For the more pure the principles are, and freed from all heterogeneous matter, the more closely they join together and the more firmly they cohere; whence arise the hardness and solidity of stones and the firm texture of them as one may see by experience in crystals and precious stones, and also in metals, which the purer they are, the stronger and more solid they are by nature.

From this we may conclude that the petrifying power of the spring of Clermont in Auvergne depends on the coagulating virtue and property of natural salt, which is innate in the spring itself arising from the native soil and from a particular influx of the stars which exercise this power especially in this spring rather than in other springs that indeed possess the same power, but not brought into act, are not so quickly reduced as in the spring itself, because they do not possess so effective and powerful a coagulating and fixing principle of salt as this spring has.

On the Spadan (Spa) springs
Chapter 15

Side margin - Description and virtue of the Spadan springs.

In the Duchy of Liège there is a village commonly called Spa. Not far from that village there are springs in the Ardennes forest of exceptional virtue, whose fame has almost filled the whole world because of the remarkable property and power they have in curing nearly all diseases. From every part of the land the sick flock here in great numbers to drink these waters, that they may be rescued and freed from illnesses incurable by the ordinary method of healing.

Very many physicians of no mean reputation have written about these waters, and different writers have said different things; but with such diversity and variety that those who devote themselves to natural subjects and long for their knowledge can scarcely give credence. There are many who maintain that copper, iron, vitriol, and sulphur communicate these notable powers and properties to the springs, contending with many arguments many contend thus; others prove that the waters are imbued with the spirits of minerals; others take refuge in occult causes and say that this of the spring is an occult virtue and an innate property which, they assert, it is impossible to specify in detail indeed more than a Herculean task. Although this seems impossible to them, we nevertheless attempt to tackle that very thing, great though it be, and intend to set forth our own opinion, since we have entered upon this discussion also for the remaining and similar springs.

Therefore the Spadan (Spa) springs receive these remarkable properties and powers from a peculiar and particular influx of Mars and Venus, which deposit in these springs a certain spiritual substance that imitates the seed of vitriol and its spiritual substance. Hence very many are mistaken when they taste and sample these waters and detect on the palate a flavor of vitriol: it is not the taste of vitriol, but the influx and ray of Mars and Venus which, being mixed with the very source of the spring and striving to produce vitriol there or wishing to fix beginnings of Mars, that is, of iron produces and generates, or deposits, nothing except a certain seminal rudiment, vaporous and spiritual, of iron and of Mars.

Side margin - Mars & Venus produce the virtues of the Spa springs.

If this were to remain fixed and at rest in a well-closed place, then surely iron, or copper, or vitriolic salt would be produced there; but since what the stars deposit immediately flows away with the water of the spring, therefore only the seeds of these things of metals; and the spiritual influxes of Mars and Venus are experienced in the spring itself. Hence the distillers, and those who think by the chemical art that they can discover material causes of these properties, are deceived and mistaken: in the end of the distillation they find nothing that savors of material bodies; indeed the slime that settles in the bottom of the still has no virtue or efficacy. The whole and entire power and energy of the spring has gone off upward with the water itself when it was raised as vapor. From this it is gathered that the notable and admirable power and property found in these springs is something spiritual, and not anything material smelling of some mineral. Nor can we attribute this spiritual essence to the influx of any other planets than Mars and Venus; for these planets pour into the earth and communicate the very powers and properties that these springs possess.

Mars instills strength and vigor into all the members, removes all obstructions, and drives away and disperses whatever is hostile to the innate heat; he cures all intermittent fevers, dropsies, paralyses, stupors, all melancholic affections, and all cold ailments (those that are ill-affected by Saturn and the Moon); by his native heat, like another sun, he diminishes them and compels them to vanish.

Side margin - What Mars and Saturn [sc. Mars & Venus]* bring about.

Venus, for her part, renews all the blood, brings on fecundity, drives sadness far away, and she remedies disorders devoted to generation, and imparts vigor to those members. She cures malignant ulcers, cleanses and wipes away phagedenic and cancerous sores; she removes the immoderate and excessive heat of the liver, spleen, and all the viscera; she is of the greatest help in elephantiasis. She very quickly cures the pale heats of women and maidens; and if her dominion prevail over the other planets in the bodies of these women and virgins, she restores bladders and wombs harmed by whatever affection, and brings them back to their due and natural state. And many other things too long and tedious to recount one by one do these planets pour into our bodies and into the earth. All these things appear in a special way in these springs, as one may see from daily experience. Therefore, if the powers and energies of these planets are present in these springs, it will be no wonder if we maintain that the virtues of these springs depend upon these planets; for earth does not rule heaven, nor do the lower things over the higher; rather the higher flow into and rule the lower.

Side margin - The acid taste pertains to Venus and Mars.

The thin, penetrating acid taste which is present in these springs attests the influx and rays of Mars and Venus: for when Mars and Venus pour their influence into the mercury of the world and unite with it, they produce dryness in that mercury; for they do not cook perfectly and absolutely the moisture together with the dregs of mercury since it is not cooked absolutely; it is rather acid than of any other taste. For when the hot is mixed and united with the moist, if it does not have a complete and perfect cooking, it turns sour as one may see in unripe fruits, which, while unripe, are sour, but when ripe, perfect, and fully matured, are altogether sweet.

Now when Venus and Mars, who are imperfect suns, pour their heat warm rather than hot into the mercury of the world, because their heat and influx are weak they cannot bring about the complete cooking of the mercury, but cook it imperfectly and sluggishly; whence acidity and sourness are found in all things that undergo the cooking of Mars and Venus. Therefore the acidity which is present in these Spa springs depends on the weak and ineffectual influx and ray of Venus and Mars, which imperfectly cook the world’s mercury (that is, the radical moisture of nature) present in these springs. And if the acidity of these springs depends on Mars and Venus, then all the other virtues and properties that follow upon this acidity must necessarily depend on them as well.

We therefore conclude that the powers and properties of the Spadan (Spa) springs depend upon and take their origin from the influx of Mars and Venus, and from the other constellations whose virtues follow upon those of Mars and Venus which by a unanimous concurrence pour these powers into the springs and produce in them a most subtle and spiritual substance one that is not material nor fixed so as to adhere to the springs, but is wholly volatile and unfixed, like the spiritual influx of Mars and Venus and the spiritual seed of those planets, which quickly vanishes into the air if the water lies long at rest under a cold sky. These are what I had to say about the Spadan springs; if the opinion of others is more pleasing to readers, let each have free judgment.

On the Nivernais springs, commonly called les eaux de Pougues.
Chapter 16

Side margin - Description and virtue of the Nivernais spring.

In the diocese of Nevers, near the village called Pougues, there are springs of notable and excellent power and property: they open all obstructions, purge all humors that are contrary to nature, resist putrefaction, refresh with natural heat, and, by a remarkable property, withstand poisonous and malignant humors. Thus they are, as it were, born to bring help in almost all diseases safely, quickly, and pleasantly and whatever the Spa springs can do and avail, these do likewise in overcoming the miseries and calamities of the human lot; these springs too are endowed with the same gift of nature, and perhaps with one more powerful and effective.

Where so great a power comes from is now for us to inquire. It is not from Mars and Venus, as the Spa springs draw theirs, because these springs are more subtle than those of Spa and have a more subtle spirit, not so rough and strong, but gentler and sweeter. Therefore I would rather assert that these powers descend from the rays and influxes of Jupiter and Mercury, who pour into this spring or source a certain spiritual seed of the metals quicksilver and tin; and by the help of this seed the spring is marked with these powers, as though it had along with it a dissolved substance of those metals, although in the spring itself no mineral at all nor anything metallic is ever found as very many have often discovered in distillations and evaporations performed on the water itself.

Side margin - The virtue of the Nivernais spring is from Jupiter and Mercury.

That subtle and penetrating acidity, inclining toward sweetness, which is perceived by taste in these waters, does not take its origin from vitriol, nor from sulphur, nor from Venus or Mars, nor from any other minerals or metals; since it is not strong and very sharp, but tempered and tending toward a certain sweetness: whence we suspect it has its origin from Jupiter and Mercury, since the proper and innate seed of these two metals is of the same quality and power; and their seed i.e., the ray and influx of Jupiter and Mercury when it is mixed and united with the seeds of the sublunary elements, brings forth and produces a tempered acidity, penetrating and subtle, both in the metals themselves and in all sublunary things into which this ray, or spiritual seed of those planets, is mixed and united.

Perhaps many physicians and natural philosophers will laugh at this opinion and mock it with a turned-up nose; but they are the ones to be laughed at, who refer this acidity, and the power and property of this spring, to a merely sublunary, elemental, and earthly cause. For whatever in the world and in this lowest sphere has power and the ability to act, has it not from this lower globe but from the higher. The power to act does not take its origin from the lower elements but from the higher; fire, air, water, earth, of themselves and from themselves do not receive the active power that they possess; rather they receive whatever action and energy they have from the higher elements.

Therefore, if these springs have wondrous and astonishing powers and properties, it is necessary that they have them not from lower things themselves, but that they take them from higher sources, from which all sublunary things derive the power to act.

Side margin - Jupiter and Mercury are the cause of the acidity.
Side margin - Whatever acts receives [its power] from above.

And therefore all those physicians and natural philosophers who will mock my view and opinion about these springs deserve great laughter; for it is not ridiculous, but true and legitimate, as though taken from a true and legitimate source of activity.

For what can the ray of Mercury and Jupiter, when mixed and united with these lower elements and especially relying on the subtle thinness of water, not accomplish? By its thinness and subtlety it carries, bears, and insinuates everywhere this subtle heavenly spirit full of life, so that it may act upon all things that are against nature and exercise its power especially in breaking up, attenuating, and driving off stubborn, tenacious, and viscous humors. Hence it is no wonder if these springs open all obstructions of the liver, spleen, and mesentery, purge all preternatural humors that are found in the inmost viscera of our body, resist putrefaction (which is wont to arise when the ventilation of the native heat is hindered), refresh the native heat in all the members, whereby they bring help to paralytics and to members affected by stupefaction, and as it were induce youth and youthful vigor; and they withstand all malignant humors whence they counter pestilence, and serve for curing all pestilential fevers and those endowed with a malignant quality; and for healing ulcers of whatever kind there is nothing more excellent anything better could hardly be found.

Side margin - Whence the Nivernais springs open obstructions.

Indeed the rays and influx of Mercury and Jupiter perform all these things most powerfully especially when they are immersed in the pure, bright, and fine substance of the sublunary elements; for their strong and effective action depends on subtle and fine matter.

Now this water is very thin and subtle, and in subtlety and fineness it surpasses the waters of Spa; hence it acts more powerfully and effectively. This spring also lies in a place where the air is exceedingly delicate and very temperate; therefore all the sick who flock here in great numbers from Paris enjoy that mildness and benignity of the air, which contributes not a little to the cure of all diseases. For in the air there is a hidden food of life, by which all the parts of our body are wonderfully refreshed.

Side margin - Life is in the air.

Hence, not without very good reason and notable prudence, the most illustrious Monsieur de Boubat, Arch-physician to our Most Christian King Louis, in the year 1654 prescribed the use of these waters to our King Louis; and this with a happy result for the King’s health, which after the use of these waters was excellent and complete. Some of the Paris physicians, however, did not approve rather from envy than for any other reason because the Arch-physician had done this without the counsel of the whole University. Yet he could freely and boldly do so, in view of the virtue and energy of these waters he was confident and assured. For in the whole world there is nothing more effective or more powerful for preserving and guarding our King’s health than these springs; for whatever is fitting for the King to use to protect and defend himself from all things that can harm him inwardly, these springs are able to administer very gently, pleasantly, and safely, as may be gathered from what has been said above.

Wherefore I will not draw out or delay the conclusion: I can affirm that the distinguished powers and properties which are in the Nivernais springs depend on the heavenly rays and influxes of Jupiter and Mercury, who pour into these waters and beget in them a certain seminal power and spiritual substance corresponding to the seeds of quicksilver and tin; from this spiritual substance not metallic, not mineral, but celestial and radiant they have all their virtues and energies.

For obtaining with good success the power and efficacy of these waters, I advise that the body first be purged with some mild medicines, such as senna, manna, and rhubarb, or with crocus metallorum (antimonial saffron) or salt of vitriol. Thus prepared, the body will feel/experience the energies and virtues of these waters more strongly and effectively.

On the hot springs and baths of Bourbon
Chapter 17

Side margin - Description and virtue of the Bourbon baths.

The Bourbon hot springs in Gaul are famous and renowned for their remarkable and excellent virtues and natural endowments, with which they are naturally gifted for curing almost every disease. They have vexed many philosophers and physicians and still torment them with various anxieties in their wish to learn and discover the source and origin of their powers. For now many contend and insist that these virtues well up from bitumen; others, from sulphur; others, from metallic spirits and minerals. But we maintain that these properties descend from a particular celestial influx and ray, and we attribute them to Venus and the Moon, and to the constellations of the same nature and power; for these heavenly stars pour into this place a certain peculiar substance, spiritual and airy, corresponding to the lower metals, by reason of which they refresh the native heat of all the members.

Side margin - The virtue of the Bourbon spring is from Venus and the Moon.

These waters cure paralysis, mitigate arthritic pains, soothe the torments of colic, remove stupors and spasm, drive away inveterate catarrhs, headaches and hemicranias; whatever malignant and corroding ulcers there are, they bring to a praiseworthy cicatrization; they relieve all obstructions; they temper acrid humors, attenuate the viscous and tenacious, and cleanse away the gross and earthy. Thus there is nothing harmful in the body and contrary to nature that they do not expel by their own faculty and marvelous power of acting; whence that notable and astonishing virtue of these waters in curing almost all diseases takes its origin.

For if by these waters and baths the innate heat is refreshed and whatever in the body is against nature is evacuated, there is no doubt that all diseases are readily cured. Now the innate heat is refreshed by the celestial and astral heat of Venus and the Moon, with which these waters swell; for the influxes of those planets since they are vital and of the same substance as our native heat by which we live our heat is easily refreshed and restored by another like to itself; indeed refreshment and restoration depend upon a similar substance. And our heat is similar and of the same essence with the influxes and celestial rays of Venus and the Moon, at least in kind, since both are celestial and are drawn from one and the same source, namely the Sun; for the Sun radiates upon all things and pours its power and light into them. The planets, having drawn their light and power from the Sun, then communicate and scatter it to the earth but with a certain distinction and diversity. For they mix their own peculiar power with the Sun’s power and make one particular (compound) power, which they communicate to earthly things. Our own natural heat, by which we live, is from the Sun, yet it acquires in us a particular power and property, and thus is distinguished from the Sun’s general heat; nevertheless it is of the same root, for from that universal created light all those heats or lights depend and have their origin. And since the greatest part of that created universal light is gathered in the Sun, it was ordained that from there, as from the true source of light, the rest and all other lights should draw their nourishment and sustenance; so it is ordained by God that every natural heat, which is a small portion of created light, is refreshed and restored by that celestial light, as from an inexhaustible and everlasting fountain of light.

Thus these Bourbon hot baths, and all other things of the same sort that abound and swell with heat and refresh our native heat inwardly, have this from the heavenly heat and light, which they draw from the higher source.

Side margin - All native heat is from the Sun.

Therefore it is no wonder if so great a power and energy is experienced in these baths and hot springs; for from the heavens they possess that in which all remarkable and most excellent virtues and properties are placed.

Nevertheless it must be noted that there is a twofold heat in these baths: one external and adventitious, which comes from without from burning sulphur, bitumen, or some other similar fatty and combustible mineral. This heat has no virtue or efficacy of its own; in the baths it does nothing more than warm them and, by that external heat, rouse another heat which is inborn and internal. This latter is truly the principle and foundation of all action and energy, and on it alone depend and from it have their origin the remarkable and wondrous powers that almost all invalids experience in these baths.

Hence we may boldly conclude that the Bourbon baths possess their powers and properties from that innate heat of their own, in which they swell and abound; and they receive that innate heat from a particular celestial ray and influx which they receive from the Moon and Venus. In the waters these produce a certain spiritual substance, heavenly and astral, corresponding to the seeds of silver and copper. By its subtlety it penetrates the whole mass of the waters, is mixed with their substance at the root, and adheres inseparably; whence, if the waters be distilled, the waters themselves together with that very spiritual, efficacious, and active substance would rise so that, if the waters be distilled, that very spiritual, efficacious, and active substance would rise together with the water itself; yet, since it is of a most subtle tenuity, it evaporates very easily with the thinner part of the water, the thicker portion remaining without that virtue and efficacy as very many physicians and natural philosophers have most often found by distilling and evaporating the waters themselves.

Conclusion of this second book,
Chapter 18, and last.

There are many other, indeed almost innumerable, springs throughout the whole world in Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Greece, in all Europe, in Asia, Africa, and America; for heaven everywhere produces marvelous and astonishing things. To speak of and recount their virtues and properties is not my purpose, since paper would not suffice and the manner of telling would be endless.

Side margin - “The springs are innumerable, wondrous and rare.”, “Whatever is rare on earth depends on heaven.”

What has been said is enough for the reader, that from the first and second book he may gather and know the virtues of all waters; for if in other regions of the earth springs should be found of extraordinary and unheard-of power and property from heaven, the cause must be referred to heaven, and to the spirit of the world that descends from heaven; therefore whatever is rare and marvelous on earth must be sought from this single cause and referred to this alone.

Accordingly, if Germans, Italians, Spaniards, English physicians and philosophers complain that I have not described the wondrous springs of their own countries, and that I have inquired only into the springs of Gaul and of my native land, let it suffice them that I have described only those springs which I have myself surveyed with my own eyes; from these they themselves, if they wish, may describe their own native springs and investigate and set forth their causes. I for my part think that throughout the whole world there exist and break forth marvelous and astonishing springs, and especially in America in the torrid zone under the equinoctial line, since there all the planets and the heat and light of the sky strike the earth directly and perpendicularly, and produce wondrous and astonishing effects. For if there the earth brings forth many minerals pure gold and silver, pearls and precious stones, notable and admirable since water is the mother and parent of all productions, why should not water itself, and particularly in springs, produce something marvelous and astonishing?

Side margin - In America the springs are marvelous and why.

There too are plants, trees, and animals to be wondered at, wholly different from our plants, trees, and animals, and superior in virtue and efficacy; why then should not the water itself since together with all these things water is the universal nourishment and daily food, it too will be endowed with admirable powers; and, in America, it will produce and effect something yet more marvelous and efficacious than in our own regions of this there is no manner of doubt. Those who sail thither can vouch for it. But because they seek and search out gold, silver, and precious stones, and other things of the highest price, they leave the springs of waters aside and set them at naught, or at least pass them by without any further inquiry; therefore no one has yet spoken of their wondrous effects.

Nevertheless, such admirable springs must exist, whose virtues and properties we can gather from all that has been said in the first and second books of this treatise, and we may refer them to heaven and its spirits, that is, to the heavenly influences and rays of light descending from heaven to earth. Thus we will close our books when the sown meadows have drunk.

And let us begin a third book of waters and springs, unheard-of though found everywhere, so that all the chymists and faithful followers of this doctrine may get drunk, and may proclaim me everywhere liberal and altogether lavish for their benefit even if I offer them water to be drunk; for it is wine, whose spirit none of the chymists can defend himself against.

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OF THE FOUNTAIN OF THE CHYMISTS
Book 3

What the Chymists Fountain is
Chapter 1

Side margin - From the Fountain of the Chymists depends the knowledge of the other fountains.

The first and second book of this Treatise would be useless and vain for the philo-chymists, unless this third book, concerning the Fountain of the Chymists, were to follow. For whatever marvelous and rare things we have said about fountains in general, and in particular, depend in a certain hidden manner and have their origin from that Chymical Fountain.

This is that fountain which, rising from the midst of the earth, waters the whole and entire surface of the earth; this is that fountain by which all of nature is irrigated, by which it is made fertile, and without which it lies barren and unfruitful, as if dead. This is that fountain by which all animals, plants, and minerals live, are nourished, and are preserved.

Side margin - Various descriptions of the chymical fountain.

This is that fountain whose spring-head is the heaven, while the elements of earth are its stream and channel which many seek, but few find; whom all see and few recognize; whom all drink and few discern this is the one who conducts the commerce between the higher and the lower; who brings souls up from Orcus and leads them into Orcus; who is the principle of life and of death; who is the soul of all the elements; who perfects this world and sets its own name upon it otherwise it would be true Chaos, unless the kinds were distinguished from this very Fountain and it became apparent what they are in the nature of things, and what they can do and avail.

These are the descriptions of our Fountain, which among the fathers of the chymists are found more numerous and almost without end; since everything natural, heavenly, and elemental can be contained within the description of this Fountain. For we may truly say: this fountain is the heaven Sun, Moon, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury; this fountain is fire, air, water, earth; this fountain is animal man, lion, toad, serpent, fish, maiden-woman; this fountain is vegetable tree, fruit, moly, rose, the mercurial plant, Lunaria, olive, coral; this fountain is mineral salt, arsenic, sulphur, vitriol, orpiment, nitre, borax, stone; and all those things which are found in the several kinds of animals, vegetables, and minerals. All these descriptions rather darken and hide this fountain than make it manifest.

Side margin - What the chymists fountain is.

Yet, that we may make it plain and open and so that together with it all the other descriptions that have been brought forward may become clear we will give the true and lawful definition of this Fountain: the Fountain of the chymists is the radical and primeval moisture of each and every thing.

In this single definition all its countless descriptions are made manifest: for since that primeval moisture is found in all things and establishes the being of all things of animals, of vegetables, and of minerals and can be designated by the names of all things, hence have arisen the riddles, logogriphs, and emblems of the chymists, to obscure this Fountain for lightly-armed men, and to disclose it to the trained and the veterans; for these pearls are not to be cast before brutes.

But since this moisture, in the universal series of things, is varied as it were in manifold and infinite ways, it must now be inquired how many its kinds are, so that, the kinds being known, the pupils of Chymia may learn which kind is necessary for them, that they may perform wonders.

How many times is the fountain of the Chemists?
Chapter 2.

Side margin - Animals have more of heaven.

In the preceding chapter we saw and explained almost countless kinds and species of the chymical Fountain; yet all these kinds are referred to only three universals. For whatever exists in the nature of things is either animal, or vegetable, or mineral: these three kinds include all things within themselves.

The animal’s radical moisture consists of the fatty moisture of the elements together with a very subtle heavenly ray; and there is more of the heavenly ray and of that created light than of the gross moisture of the lower elements. Hence all animals have more of heaven than the other two kinds namely vegetables and minerals whence also, because they have more of heaven and of light, they live with a sentient soul, whose faculties and powers are to be admired and are astonishing in certain species of animals.

Side margin - Why animals excel vegetables and minerals.

And all that is from the light and from the heavenly spirit, which, the more powerful and lively it is in the lower things, so much the fairer and rarer things it brings forth and generates, whence animals surpass all vegetables and minerals; because in them the heaven is more lively and robust, while the elemental moisture is fatter, rarer, subtler, and not of such tenacity and viscidity.

Side margin - Whence the kinds of animals, vegetables, and minerals are various.

But vegetables in general have a primeval moisture that is fatty, airy, and very watery, impregnated with a very fine heavenly light; from which they have that visible and well-known faculty of growing, whereby the vegetative soul lives, whereby they endure through time; upon it all their faculties and powers depend, and by it they are distinguished. And every class of vegetables is varied (as is the difference of the remaining classes); for as many species of light as there are in heaven, so many distinct species of animals, plants, and minerals are found upon the earth.

Side margin - The chymists fountain as mineral moisture.

The mineral radical moisture what we may by antonomasia call the true and legitimate fountain of the chymists, since they seek this very thing and with all their strength yearn for it that they may accomplish their wonders and marvels is nothing else than that very moisture by which all minerals consist, by which they endure, by which they persist, by which in fire they flow and are melted. And it is a moisture of the elements very fatty and tenacious, viscous and unctuous, and more earthy and watery than airy; and it consists together with that heavenly light, or the ray of the planets and constellations, being conjoined with it.

Side margin - What the fatty moisture of the elements is.

What, then, is that fatty moisture of all the elements, from which in general the fountain of the chymists is constituted? we have said in many places in our Palladius, where in such a work there is copious discussion; nevertheless I will repeat it here, so that all pupils and candidates of Chymia may more easily grasp what the chymists’ fountain is. That fatty moisture of the elements which is found in the three kinds of things, joined together with the heavenly light, is the seed, that is, the pure [part] of whatever element; and each element sends this down and deposits it in the centre of the earth. There the power of nature also called the Archaeus mingles those seeds and, together with the heavenly light and its influx, grinds them; and that heavenly light from thence stirs up vapours which are carried upward and sublimed, and again they descend; and by their ascent and descent, repeated without limit and perpetually, they are condensed into bodies. And the things, having received their specific differences, take them from the heavenly spirit and ray, which lies hidden in their centre and is concealed.

Side margin - Whence all fountains arise.
Side margin - The chymists fountain is threefold.

Therefore those seeds, or the pure [parts] of all the elements, which by their own natural impulse are borne to the centre of the earth so that together they may be perfected with the heavenly light these are that fatty moisture of the elements, from which all fountains are materially produced, and especially the fountain of the chymists; and that the moisture or seed of the elements is divided into three kinds, and the vapors too that are carried upward from that moisture have a threefold distinction and difference: for from those by which animals are nourished and come to be, the animal [kinds] are so called; from those by which vegetables come to be and are nourished, the vegetable [kinds] are named; from those by which minerals [come to be], the mineral [kinds] are termed.

And because these three kinds are found in the earth, each one draws from that Fountain, by means of its vapors which it sends forth continually, that which belongs to it, and it receives it for its preservation, nourishment, and generation.

Thus from one and the same Fountain each draws whatever is proper to it. Which, if I mistake not, the Holy Spirit seems to have said in the second chapter of Genesis: ‘And a river went out of the place of delight to water paradise’; and more clearly in the same chapter: ‘A fountain went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground’ others render, ‘A vapor went up from the earth, watering the whole face of the earth’ which is more fitting and suitable to the saying alleged above about the radical moisture of all things, resting in the center of the earth, which we have made threefold animal, vegetable, and mineral so that from one Fountain all things may spring forth and arise; and as from the one Uncreated and Eternal they have taken their origin, so also from one created, temporal, and finite [Fountain] they may be cherished and nourished.

By what way, and by what hidden (occult) method, the alchemists’ fountain becomes animate (living)
Chapter 3.

Side margin - By what method the chymists’ fountain becomes animal.

When the Fountain of the Chymists, at the beginning of its rise and origin, is the seed of all the elements and of heaven, it is something indifferent and undistinguished toward animal, vegetable, and mineral. But when the light and the heavenly power which is in it has attenuated all the seeds of the elements and has brought them to a certain degree of subtlety, then, by the nature of time, from that seed and from its own radical moisture it can produce nothing except an animal an animal of pure ‘insect’ (as they say), which is not begotten from a previous animal like itself: such are serpents, flies, butterflies, frogs, toads, and countless others, which are not generated from pre-existing similar animals, but are produced solely from that general seed, when it has been led to a certain degree of perfection, by the innate power of the heavenly light.

Side margin - Perfect animals.
Side margin - by what way they come to be from the Chymists’ fountain.

Other animals indeed, which are called perfect, were brought forth from that same general seed yet by the divine hand and operation by that same providence they were, in the beginning of creation, brought to that grade of perfection; and they themselves afterwards, from His divine power, received that virtue and energy of multiplying themselves in their own seed, which virtue they still keep unharmed, and will keep safe until the end of the age.

For what God once gave to natural things He always and perpetually preserves to them. Hence, if perfect animals have within themselves the seed by which they are produced and multiplied although it is composed and compacted from the substantial parts of the universal seed nevertheless that particular and peculiar power of multiplying themselves only within themselves they do not have from the innate power of the general seed, but from that divine power by which, at the beginning of the world’s creation, when producing perfect animals, He said to them: “Crescite & multiplicamini” (“Increase and multiply”). Those words bestowed upon all perfect animals the virtue and energy of multiplying themselves in themselves by the power of their seed.

Side margin - Perfect animals cannot be made from the general seed.

Let all those be gone who think that by heavenly virtue and by that general seed perfect animals can be produced and generated such as oxen, cows, lions, eagles, conidos (a kind of fish), cete (whales), and other perfect and complete kinds of fishes which are distinguished into male and female so that they should be brought forth by the power of their seed specially wrought in them.

Side margin - How man was made.

For this cannot happen by nature otherwise God would not have made those distinct species of things in a special way, if by the natural power of the general seed they could have been produced; for to what end would God have done this since He does nothing in vain if it could have happened of itself?

We therefore see our Chymical Fountain, that is, the radical moisture of the world, to become animal partly by its own innate power, and partly by divine power; for perfect animals cannot, by the power of the general seed alone, be brought and raised to that grade of perfection: they need the divine hand and operation to attain that grade of perfection. For the internal light of the general seed cannot raise itself to so high a degree of perfection; it needs its Creator and the uncreated light, that it may reach that grade. Therefore God made all the species of animals perfect, and by His word communicated to them the power and energy of multiplying themselves in their own seed; so that that divine power might lead the created light of the general seed to that perfect grade of perfect animals.

Side margin - By what way the Chymists’ fountain becomes animal in all animals.

But man, since he is the last (highest) degree of all perfect animals, not only required divine aid and operation to be lifted up and sublimed to so great a degree of perfection; he also needed another special and particular light, coming to his seed from without, created by God alone, and made peculiar to the human seed for this purpose specially disposed and infused into it, so that it might be able to attain that lofty grade of perfection. Therefore God Himself, by His hands and His word, not only fashioned the human body, but breathed into it a living soul peculiar to it; by this alone he attains that highest grade of perfection, and by it he is distinguished and separated from all other animals.

Let us conclude, then, that the world’s radical moisture which we call the Chymical Fountain reaches the animal grade and perfection partly by its own innate faculty, which it receives from the heavenly light & spirit, who attenuate that moisture and graduate it to this level of a sentient soul; partly by the divine power which God implanted in it at the beginning of its creation and communicated to its germinative faculty; and partly also by a peculiar created light, which it receives from God by creation & infusion whence men come to be and so that radical moisture of the world is raised to the ultimate grade of a sentient & reasoning soul.

By what method the alchemists’ fountain becomes vegetable (plant-like).
Chapter 4.

Side margin - How the chymists fountain becomes vegetable.

To the vegetable grade of perfection the world’s radical moisture is raised of its own accord and with ease; for it is from itself wholly vegetable. For if it did not have from itself that faculty of growing and of sprouting, what could there be in the nature of things to communicate to it that faculty which is visible and apparent in it?

Indeed, no one has yet doubted that this radical moisture of the world, from itself and of its own spontaneity, germinates and produces all vegetables and minerals; but it elevates and moves itself to this vegetative faculty. For the internal light, that is, the spirit of heavenly light which is the influx of the planets and constellations, prepares and mixes the pure seeds of the elements that concur and come together for the production of that radical moisture, by a certain peculiar method so as to be led out from here particularly toward vegetables; for it digests the subtle watery and airy [parts], and cooks and mixes them in that radical moisture by a certain peculiar method, so that in such cooking, preparation, and mixture, a certain difference & distinction arises, from which the faculty of vegetating springs.

Side margin - By what power the world’s radical moisture is determined toward vegetables.

Add that that heavenly spirit, descending from heaven, is joined to the elemental moisture according to the difference of the stars, and is directed rather toward vegetables than toward the other kinds of things; whence, from that astral difference, it also receives a vegetable difference, and that universal moisture becomes specific to vegetating things, by reason of that astral difference which the heavenly light receives from the particular rays & lights of the stars.

Side margin - The stars infuse the vegetative faculty.

For in heaven there are particular stars by which particular species of vegetations are produced, nourished, & preserved; whence in some years they spring forth more copiously than in others, because the virtue & energy of these stars is in those years more powerful & efficacious. And then it impregnates & vivifies that fatty moisture of all the elements, which is the material of our Chymical Fountain, and it determines & specifies the powers of our Fountain to this species or to another, namely of the vegetating things.

Side margin - The stars specify the chymical fountain.
Side margin - The spirit of light is the form of Mercury.

Now the stars placed in the firmament are distinct & many, set for the determination & specification of that material spirit of the world, which is that fatty moisture of all the elements and materially constitutes our Fountain; but the spirit of the light of heaven, the spirit of the heavenly light is the form of that moist matter, the fatty moisture of the elements; whence from that form it receives its own distinction and specific determination. And because that form is manifold, as descending from multiple and diverse stars, therefore that moisture our Chymical Fountain is diversified into the many kinds of plants, in that various forms are introduced into our Fountain by the diverse influxes & rays of the stars, which inform & actuate our Fountain.

These many genera of plants produce seed within themselves, by whose benefit they preserve their own determination & specification; nevertheless that seed has what it has from the higher star which gave it that determination & specification: indeed that seed, or grain, is as it were the son of that star; hence, like its father, it keeps & retains the same virtue & energy.

Side margin - By what particular way plants arise without seed.

Many species of plants are also produced without any pre-existing seed or grain, and are generated from mere putrefaction, when through that putrefaction the thing that rots is resolved into the first matter, that is, into our fatty moisture of the elements; which is straightway impregnated, actuated, & informed by a certain spirit of the heavenly light of some star and when thus informed, this or that plant springs up from it.

Let us therefore conclude that our Chymical Fountain namely the fatty moisture of all the elements, acted upon & informed by the heavenly spirit of light is specified & determined to the various and manifold species of plants by that heavenly spirit of the diverse Stars, which varies & actuates that very Fountain according to its own diversity & variety, which it receives and puts on from the various Stars existing in the firmament.

By what method the alchemists fountain becomes mineral.
Chapter 5.

Side margin - By what way the Chymists fountain becomes mineral.

The Chymists’ Fountain, that is, that fatty moisture of all the elements, seems of itself to become mineral, since it is produced in the center of the earth, and there rather takes on a mineral & earthly essence than any other. Nevertheless, it must be believed that, while it is still in the earth’s center, it is something indifferent & undistinguished toward animals, vegetables, and minerals, until it is actuated by the spirit of animals, of vegetables, and of minerals. Now this particular spirit depends on the particular stars of the firmament, as was explained in the preceding chapter. It is actuated when it is disposed by that spirit in a particular manner, and in such a way as is needed for producing minerals, animals, or vegetables.

Side margin - Each star, whatever it be, has all the powers.
Side margin - The Sun & the stars.

For each star, whatever it may be, possesses all the faculties animal, that is, vegetable and mineral; but according to its own proper and natural disposition, which it induces into our fatty elemental moisture, it draws out the faculty which such a disposition requires. The Sun, for example, possesses animal, vegetable, and mineral faculties all together; but when it intends to produce an animal, it disposes our moisture in a peculiar way, and according to that disposition it brings forth the animal form in that moisture thus disposed. When it has in view to produce a vegetable, it disposes the same matter otherwise; yet it disposes it according to the requirement and the form it wishes to elicit from our fatty moisture, and when it is thus prepared & disposed, then in due time the intended vegetable form arises. Likewise, when it wishes to produce some mineral, it disposes this matter also in a way wholly different from the preceding dispositions; and when, according to the requirement of the mineral which it intends to produce, it has been disposed, then in due time that mineral form arises which the disposition of the matter demanded.

Side margin - by what way they produce various things.

Thus the Sun & the other Stars all produce various things, and the Stars they generate different kinds of things according to the varied and diverse disposition which they introduce into our fatty moisture of the elements.

But when the Sun intends to produce gold, it makes our Mercury, that is, the Fountain of the Chymists, earthly & watery rather than airy & fiery; and this same substance, endowed with these first qualities, it purifies to the utmost by various sublimations and by continual cooking in a very well-sealed flint vessel. Little by little that earthy portion is converted into a pure red sulphur, not burning but incombustible; then that sulphur cooks its own moisture, fixes it, and hardens it most perfectly; and so by cooking they are united with one another in such a way that they can never be separated from one another. Thus the individual is dyed and colored with the hue of red sulphur, and is fixed by a final fixation; and so gold becomes steadfast and permanent, rejoicing in the midst of the strongest fires.

But by what method metals are made from our Fountain in particular we shall say below, where these matters will be treated very clearly; here we have only to treat by what method our Fountain becomes mineral.

We have already said that the stars, by their peculiar power, dispose this matter our Fountain toward diverse kinds of things; and when they make that same Fountain earthly & watery more than airy, and fiery without any other particular condition & quality, then in due time our Fountain is truly disposed for producing & generating whatever mineral. But when afterwards the earthy part & the moist are endowed with particular qualities, then, according to the peculiar conditions of those qualities, various minerals are produced namely, according as the sulphur & mercury of our Fountain are cooked, purified, & fixed; and according to that varied cooking, purification, & fixation of sulphur & Mercury, other chief conditions give rise to further qualities, and various minerals are produced, as will be seen below.

We must therefore conclude that our Chymical Fountain becomes mineral when the seeds of earth & of water prevail over the seeds of the other elements; whence our Fountain is very heavy, fat, & viscous from the fatness of water & earth, which excels the fatnesses of the other elements; and from the fatnesses of earth & water alone comes the weight which we experience in our Fountain.

By what particular method and way the alchemists’ fountain becomes gold.
Chapter 6.

Side margin - How gold is made.

Solar light, descending from the bosom of its Father into the earth and penetrating even to the center of the earth, by its subtle and penetrating energy pierces, quickens, and actuates the fatty moisture of all the elements residing there as though in its own proper and natural palace; and with its vivifying heat it raises it upward, and by such elevation frees and purifies it from all its earthy, watery, and other foul excrements. Purified at length by many elevations, it is shut up in some vaulted rock most firmly closed, and there for almost a thousand years, or thereabout, it is kept imprisoned; and by the central heat of the earth and by its own internal heat which it received from the solar spirit itself, it is cooked in unceasing and continual coction: meanwhile it putrefies, turns black, and suffers the influxes and rays of all the planets; finally, through that long time it is coagulated and fixed into a certain earthy sulphureous substance, red, not burning but incombustible, fixed, and fusible, solar light, sending forth and pouring out its rays, is led out by that accursed hunger for gold (auri sacra fames), which forces and burns mortal hearts; it brings [the metal] up from the lowest caverns of the earth and transfers it to human uses.

Side margin - By what method Nature might make the Philosophers’ gold.

If Nature were able to do this to that same matter while it is not yet absolutely coagulated and fixed into gold if, I say, Nature could join to that very matter a Mercury, that is, our Fountain, purified to the utmost and freed from all earthy and watery dregs, five or seven times, then there would arise from this a rare treasure of the whole of Nature, far superior to gold and more useful to the human race. But Nature fails where she ought to begin, or at least to persist: for she cannot drench and water that same matter again and again with many repeated irrigations, because a suitable Mercury is lacking, apt for making such irrigation. And Mercury is lacking, since every Mercury that Nature has is seasoned with certain qualities and conditions that do not suit this irrigation indeed are quite contrary and various, and resist it.

Nature rejoices in one sole coagulation of our Fountain; and since she cannot elaborate the matter by a repeated solution of the same matter already coagulated together with that same matter not yet coagulated, but purified and, by its distillations, freed from all the excrements of the elements, since she cannot make this solution, she rests only in the first coagulation of her matter and rejoices in it thus she produces the common gold. But if she were able to make and accomplish that aforesaid solution, she would make the Philosophers’ Gold, nor would philosophers have any need to handle this business and lay their hands to it, since the whole would be entrusted to Nature. Yet because Nature cannot do this, she therefore needs art and the help & industry of the Philosophers, so that by the philosophers’ industry and administration Nature may be able to produce another sort of gold; by whose assistance Nature attains the utmost of what she longs for, and what she can reach in minerals.

Side margin - What the Philosophers’ Gold is.

Hence even the one-eyed can see more clearly that the Philosophers’ Gold is something distinct and separate from common and natural gold: for Nature alone, without anyone’s help or ministry, brings forth natural gold; but she cannot produce the philosophers’ [gold] unless she be aided by the philosophers, who by their art lead and raise her matter (which Nature can only conduct as far as gold) to something higher though it is Nature that supplies the matter, which the philosophers cannot give.

Side margin - How many kinds there are of physical or chymical gold.
Side margin - How chymical gold is made.
Side margin - What the seed of silver is, and of what kind.

Now the Philosophers’ Gold is twofold: one kind fixed, absolutely purified & cooked, of which we have already spoken; another fixed and yet volatile, crude, and not absolutely cooked which even Nature herself, with no philosopher assisting, can produce this; and even the Philosophers themselves, with Nature supplying the material, are able to produce it. Therefore something must be said about both kinds of gold, so that we may see very clearly by what method Nature transmutes our Chymical Fountain into gold.

When Nature has bound and coupled our fatty moisture of the elements with the solar spirit, she cooks by her internal heat all those things which make one homogeneous thing and become a moisture; she brings it to be somewhat earthy and watery, sooty, viscid, and unctuous. From this sooty and fat moisture she draws out, by her heat, the spirit that is, the thinner substance of that matter; and thus Nature makes out of a body a spirit, whereas previously she had made out of a spirit namely, out of the thinner substance of the elements and the spirit of light a body. Now again out of the body she makes a spirit, and once more she joins this spirit to its body, and attaches it to the fixed parts of the body, and to those parts alone which partake of the essence of the spirit and are of the same essence.

Side margin - What the seed of gold is, and of what kind.
Side margin - How natural gold and the Philosophers’ gold come to be.

Therefore, when she has attached to these fixed parts her spirit which by elevation & distillation she had separated from its body, the dregs being removed as heterogeneous she cooks the remainder with steady and continual coction, until it arrives at a certain earthy substance most limpid and bright and white, and fusible it brings it to that which is Nature’s sulphur; from this, immediately, Nature alone, by continued coction, produces and makes silver. Then that substance before by the final coction it becomes silver is again dissolved when a new Mercury arrives, that is, the vapor of our fatty moisture; and it is again cooked, and is raised to a higher grade, to the red color. In this grade it is called the sulphur of gold and the seed of gold, from which Nature straightway produces gold. That seed and sulphur is also called the gold of Nature, but volatile and unfixed and still crude.

And the Chymic Philosopher, if he wishes to possess the absolute perfection of Chymia, ought to make gold by almost the same roads and methods as Nature does, taking up one and the same matter; otherwise his work is vain and altogether fruitless. From all this it is plain to every candidate of Chymia by what method the Chymists’ Fountain becomes natural gold and [the gold] of the Philosophers; and thus enough has been said about the Fountain itself, so that from it the gold of Nature and of the Philosophers may be well known and clear to all chymists provided that the Fountain itself be also known and clear to them: for they are of the same essence and origin, as we showed in the preceding chapter, and in the chapters yet to come we shall make it still clearer.

By what particular way the alchemists fountain becomes silver.
Chapter 7.

Side margin - How silver is made.

Our Fountain, that is, the fatty moisture of all the elements, vivified & actuated by the spirit of the heavenly light, when it is cooked & digested by its own internal & inborn heat, and by the natural heat of the earth and of the place where it is enclosed, at length reaches the grade of perfection of a certain white earth, shining & glittering, fusible. This the internal heat then cooks more and more and hardens, until at last perfect and complete silver rises from it, all the excrements meanwhile being cast off the earthy & watery dregs which in the perpetual & continual decoction it lets go until this matter is pure and bright; which finally it cooks & hardens into a solid mass of silver. This is the natural and true making of silver by Nature herself, and the composition from our Fountain, that is, from the fatty moisture of all the elements & the heavenly spirit.

Side margin - The mineral moisture is not determined to silver by the Moon, properly and truly.
Side margin - Seven degrees of the coction of the chymic fountain.

Some of the natural philosophers assert that, while this moisture is being cooked, a peculiar influx of the Moon intervenes, by which a peculiar influx this matter is determined to silver. With due respect I say: it is not by any peculiar influx of the Moon that this matter and that moisture are determined to silver, but by coction alone which first brings forth silver from that matter; and secondly, if the same coction goes on and persists upon the same matter, it brings forth gold, and there Nature comes to rest, since she cannot further advance this matter. The influxes of the heavenly Planets and Stars can do nothing else upon this matter than arouse its own internal heat and excite it to motion, whereby it cooks and perfects its own moisture. If it cooks absolutely and to the ultimate, then gold is perfected from it; if it is diminished and not altogether absolute, but to the sixth grade of perfection, then at that time the natural Luna, that is, common and vulgar silver, emerges.

I said the sixth grade of perfection, because seven grades have been conceived of the coction of our Mercury (i.e., of the chymic fountain) in the perfecting of metals. First grade: when argentum vivum (quicksilver) common and vulgar emerges from that coction. Second grade: when Saturnus (lead). Third: when stannum (tin). Fourth: when Venus or cuprum (copper). Fifth: when ferrum (iron). Sixth: when Luna (silver). Seventh and last: when Sol, that is, gold, is composed from it.

Side margin - How our Fountain is changed by coction alone.

I do not therefore deny that the Moon of heaven may impart something particular to silver, or to the earthly Moon, just as the Sun [does] to gold; and to the other terrestrial planets other heavenly planets contribute something particular, by reason of which they imitate the virtues and energies of those [luminaries]. But this is internal, and lies in the first composition of Mercury, not in its coction where all the celestial spirits of light, both of the planets and of the other heavenly constellations, run together and are formally united in the fatty moisture of the elements. There, at that time, the stronger and more powerful spirit of light prevails and determines this matter to this or that metal, or to the production of some other thing.

But when, with the lapse of time and by further coction, they go on and undergo a change, those spirits are overcome by others lying hidden in the very bosom of the matter; and by continuous coction those hidden spirits very weak are made stronger and manifest. Hence the matter is transmuted from form to more noble form, until at last the metals are brought forth. Thus very plainly see all who cook our Fountain, well sealed, with continual coction and constant digestion: they see our matter first turn black, and there for a long time almost five months imitate the crude humor of Saturn; then, by continued coction, it grows white with a certain somewhat-dim whiteness, which seems to imitate the nature and condition of tin; then it grows green and it grows red, and is adorned with various colors which follow the essence and qualities of Venus and Mars; at length it truly and most purely becomes white, because it takes on the qualities and essence of Luna and silver. And this whiteness is truly Nature’s sulphur, fixed & fusible, by which Nature perfects silver in the bowels of the earth. If this sulphur, from our Fountain pure and bright, be again and again diluted and then coagulated, it acquires so much perfection that one part of this sulphur tinges countless parts of copper, and of iron, and of other more imperfect metals, into true and lawful silver.

Let us conclude, therefore, that our Chymical Fountain is condensed into silver by the sole coction of its own internal moisture, until it comes to the ultimate and perfect coction of true and legitimate silver which is the drying of that moisture into a solid white earth, fusible & meltable.

By what particular process the alchemists’ fountain becomes iron.
Capter 8.

Side margin - how iron is made.
Side margin - Why iron does not melt/flow in the fire.

By what way the chymists’ fountain Nature, in producing iron, proceeds by no other path than in the other metals: it (Nature) takes our moisture, or rather its own fatty moisture of all the elements, vivified & actuated by the heavenly spirit, and within its rocky vessels it cooks it and causes putrefaction; and, with no separation made of the impure, foul, and earthy sulphur, by continual coction it hardens it into a solid mass of iron. For that which in this fatty moisture is the true material of metals namely a stony and earthy sulphur, not fusible Nature by no means separates; but together with the pure, fusible, and metallic sulphur she mingles it, and the mixture she cooks and unites into a solid mass of iron, hard and of most difficult fusion, because a stony and earthy sulphur is much mingled with it.

But Nature could not separate that sulphur and the other sulphureous, combustible dregs which are inborn in iron, because of the shortness of time: for in cooking, perfecting, and purifying metals a very long time is required, since the heat of the earth is slight and very gentle, and the internal heat of metals by which they are cooked is also gentle; the metallic moisture of which they are composed is of extreme crudity, and therefore the coction is long and slow. In a short time, therefore, Nature could not separate those excrements which are inborn in iron, so as to be able to lead the matter to a much greater perfection.

Side margin - By what method iron can be changed into gold.
Side margin - Art shortens the metallic work.

It is wrought by one who yet Nature keeps working continually on this same matter, and by her coction strives to separate all those dregs with which it swells and abounds and by which it is stained and defiled. But the necessity men have of possessing iron forces them to tear that matter from the bosom of the earth and turn it to their own uses; wherefore it remains imperfect and sprinkled with those impure recrementa, from which it cannot be freed unless perfect sulphur, the white or the red of the Philosophers, be added to it and joined with it. Then, by the benefit of that perfect and absolute sulphur, it is straightway indeed almost in a moment cleansed from all those sulphureous dregs and foulnesses; its fatty moisture is perfectly fixed and condensed, and it is dyed with a perfect colour, red or white, of that white or red sulphur; and thus it is carried up to the perfection of silver or of gold, a perfection which of its own natural tendency it would have reached in the bowels of the earth only after almost a thousand years, at the end of its sixth coction. Hence it is clear by what method Art, imitating Nature and following her, brings things to perfection more quickly than Nature herself alone, unaided by any art.

The Fountain of the Chymists, that is, the radical metallic moisture, by natural coction matures into iron in about a hundred years.

Side margin - Nature’s metals are dead, but the chymists’ are living.

Art, however, taking this very matter, changes it into iron in four or five months, and into silver in seven and in nine [months] into gold from which one may see how greatly Art shortens the work beyond Nature. Yet these are Philosophical metals and have no communion with the metals of the vulgar; for the latter are dead things, bloodless bodies, whereas the former are full of life and replete with blood, by which they vegetate and grow and attain their final perfection.

With what has now been said and explained, it is clearer than daylight by what method the Chymists’ Fountain becomes iron: that moisture our fountain of metals is cooked among hollow rocks where that moisture is enclosed; it is digested by its own natural fire and by the external heat of the earth and of the place that contains it, and in the course of that digestion it putrefies, so that it may be transmuted; for nothing is brought forth to a new and recent generation without putrefaction and death. When the putrefaction of that moisture has taken place, the coction is continued, and that moisture is dried into a certain kind of blackish-red earth, which is thus hardened with no separation made of the sulphureous excrements by continual coction so that iron then arises from it, which from that blackish-red earth is smelted out and melted by the most violent strength of fires.

And let what has been said suffice to show by what method iron is made from our Chymical Fountain, which is the father of all metals, and the true mother who begets, nourishes, and preserves them all.

By what method the alchemists’ fountain becomes copper.
Chapter 9.

Side margin - By what method copper is made.
Side margin - In a copper mine something of gold is often found.

The heavenly ray of Venus, flowing into the Fountain of the Chymists, increases and multiplies its inward, life-giving heat. While that Fountain that fatty moisture so often mentioned above is being cooked, after it has putrefied and been brought to a certain grade of a greenish and sky-blue earth, then the celestial ray and influx of Venus thrives in that earth and shows and makes manifest its powers, as though at that time it were exalted from its natal place; and by a strong, liquefying fire it gives copper in which there is always found some portion of pure gold. For when that fatty metallic moisture is cooked by natural coction and digestion into that green and blue earth, certain parts are found to be more cooked and purified, and cooked into red sulphur; from this comes that gold which is found in the earth of a copper mine.

Side margin - The colors of red sulphur.
Side margin - From the Great Work the chymists take the operations of Nature.

And unless that copper-earth had been quickly torn from the bosom of the earth, it would have been wholly converted into gold; because by continued coction at length it would have been entirely purified and turned into incombustible and fusible red sulphur, and thus it would have become true gold. But the great hunger for copper tears that immature sulphur of gold from the bosom of its mother before its legitimate coction, and by the force of fire squeezes out of that mineral earth green and most often sky-blue what has already been cooked in the nature of copper, showing the rudiments of gold by the green and blue color. For green and blue are the proper and inborn colors of red sulphur while immature. For the Philosophers’ red sulphur, while it is being cooked and inclines toward its perfection, is first adorned, during the coction, with a green and blue color, before it attains that absolute, ultimate, sanguine redness.

So also the metals of Nature, while they are being cooked in the bowels of the earth, before they reach the coction of the final and perfect red sulphur, are adorned with various colors green and blue, for example and with all those that can arise from these; and all these colors bear witness to the essence and nature of a sulphur that is imperfect yet metallic.

Thus from that famous and great work of the chymists we learn the natural operations in the bowels of the earth: for what Nature performs in the earth’s depths, the same Nature performs in the Philosophers’ very glass and vessel, with art assisting. For we must not think this operation to be the philosophers’ own, but Nature’s; yet it is said to be the philosophers’ because they directed by the Philosophers yet Nature is always the one at work upon one and the selfsame kind of matter as that upon which she works in the bowels of the earth. With these things explained, we can affirm how the Chymists’ Fountain becomes copper: when the Fountain itself is enclosed in the earth’s bowels, it is cooked and digested by its own natural heat and by the external heat of the place where it is shut up; and, while cooking, it putrefies, so that it may be stripped of its mercurial entity. This putrefied matter is then continually cooked until it comes to a fixation, that is, to a coagulation of a certain green earth, somewhat blackish and sky-blue, which contains copper in its bowels; that is, to a certain greenish, somewhat reddish sulphur, having a crude and unripe belly, which has coagulated its own Mercury into copper.

By what method the alchemists’ fountain becomes tin.
Chapter 10.

Side margin - By what method tin is made.
Side margin - Why tin squeaks.
Side margin - Raw things are impure.

Tin is produced and generated by the same and similar way, and from the same matter, as the other metals. The Chymists’ Fountain, which is the radical metallic moisture, compounded from the fatty seed of the elements and the spirit of heavenly light, is enclosed in the bowels of the earth and, by its own internal heat and by the external heat of the place where it is shut in digests and thoroughly cooks it; and in its digestion it putrefies so as to be changed. It is cooked continually and incessantly; otherwise, if the external heat of the place by which the internal [heat] is roused and moved were to cease, the operation would stop, and from that matter something else would be generated, unlike tin, and thus Nature’s intention would be frustrated.

Therefore that matter is cooked unceasingly until, through the various mutations that come from that perpetual coction, it arrives at a kind of earth that is somewhat whitish and shining-black, still swollen with the acid spirits of its own Mercury, and abounding in them because of the crudity and the imperfect coction that that earth still has. From this earth, by a strong fire, tin is expressed a metal that squeaks when pressed between the teeth because that acid spirit of its Mercury has in no way been coagulated by its own cooking, nor changed from its crude qualities, which by their acidity and crudity produce that squeak. Hence also, because of its crudity and its weak coction, it melts very easily. It contains much white sulphur, but impure; for it has not reached the ultimate goal of purity, although it has been brought to the whiteness of silver. For whatever is raw is impure in rawness impurity always lurks.

Side margin - Whether the Philosophers’ Mercury can be drawn from tin.
Side margin - The chymists’ Mercury does not come from metals.

There are some who think it can be changed easily into silver if that squeaking be removed, without our white sulphur brought to perfection I cannot believe this; for that internal and essential crudity which inheres in its own Mercury and sulphur cannot be taken away by any ingenuity without the projection of our white sulphur, perfect and absolute. The squeak indeed can be removed, since it lies in the acid spirits of volatile Mercury; but that crudity of sulphur and Mercury which produces impurity cannot be taken away except by that projection of the chymists’ white sulphur, by whose benefit because of its highest perfection and the living fire with which it swells all the crudities of the metals and the impurities that follow from them are most completely removed and utterly banished.

Hence many natural philosophers have thought that from this metal, because of its crudity and the abundance of crude Mercury it contains, Mercury (that is, the Fountain of the Chymists) could be drawn off. But lay aside, I beg, this opinion from your mind; it is false and erroneous, as can clearly be gathered from what has been said: for the Fountain of the Chymists, or their Mercury, does not come from metals; rather, metals are made from Mercury, that is, from this Fountain. Nature alone, as we have often said and shown by various arguments, first and immediately produces this Fountain from the simplest elements alone and from the spirit of light; these she mixes and compacts into the Philosophers’ Mercury; and from it Nature then produces animals, vegetables, and minerals, as in the preceding chapters we have made this plain and clear. Good God! what would it mean if the Chymists’ Mercury could be made from tin? The effect would produce its cause, and the son his father. If it is agreed and altogether certain that metals are made from the Chymists’ Mercury, then it is most certain that Mercury is not made from metals, but metals from it.

Indeed, the vulgar mercury (quicksilver) can be made from all the metals, since the metals are mutually convertible, and vulgar mercury is a metal which can be converted into all metals and conversely, all metals can be turned into mercury. Therefore from tin, nor from any other metal whatsoever, whether perfect or imperfect, the Philosophers’ Mercury cannot be made.

Nor should one object the weighty judgments and opinions of many chymists who assert that in Sol and Luna that is, in common gold and silver there is found the true and legitimate Philosophers’ Mercury; for those opinions must be interpreted of the philosophers’ gold and silver, which are not the vulgar’s. For these latter, as the philosophers proclaim, are dead, whereas the former are living, as though full of living and heavenly fire. And although there is, in a certain sense, Philosophers’ Mercury in the metals of the vulgar, nevertheless, as it is and in the manner in which it is, it is not the Philosophers’ Mercury since the mercury that is in metals is dead and cannot produce metals, as the Philosophers’ Mercury produces. Hence it is very clear that the Philosophers’ Mercury cannot be drawn from tin, nor from any other metals whatsoever; for when it is compounded there it dies, and by the simple industry of men it cannot rise again from that death and recover its former life, so as to go back again into the Philosophers’ Mercury. It is enough that tin is made from the Philosophers’ Mercury in the way we have said, and not, conversely, Mercury from tin.”

By what natural process the alchemists’ fountain becomes lead.
Chapter 9.

Side margin - By what method lead is made.

In producing lead, Nature takes up our Fountain, that is, its own Mercury, the fatty moisture of all the elements mixed with that heavenly & life-giving spirit of light; she mingles it with many various & heterogeneous earthy sulphureous fatnesses, and shuts it up in hollow places of the earth, where she digests & cooks this matter and brings it to putrefaction.

Side margin - Although the Philosophers’ Mercury is called ‘lead,’ it is not lead.

And when by putrefaction all things have been mixed together & united, she cooks & digests with no separation made, until by that continual & perpetual coction it comes to a certain kind of earth that is blackish, shining, and faintly sparkling, heavy from which, with a very slight fire, the lead of the chymists is melted. Very many think that this lead-earth is the true matter from which, by chymic art, the elixir of the chymists and gold that is, red sulphur, which by its tincture and perfection can perfect all imperfect metals into gold may be made. But these men are utterly astray: for this earth and the lead smelted and cast from it cannot give or display so great a perfection, since all the things inherent in this earth are held to be very raw and imperfect, nor can they be perfected by any human skill unless by the red or white chymic sulphur. Whence, although by this road it were brought to that perfection, nevertheless it could not be the matter for making the elixir, because this belongs solely to the Fountain of the Chymists, or the Philosophers’ Mercury, which is wholly different from the matter and ore of lead, or from lead itself: for the Chymists’ Fountain is not lead, although lead is made from it.

Side margin - What the Philosophers’ lead is, and of what kind.
Side margin - What is meant by ‘Saturn devours his children.
Side margin - What is meant by ‘Saturn was castrated by Jupiter.

And if the Fountain of the Chymists is very often called ‘lead’, this lead is not the vulgar lead, but the Philosophers’; and from this lead it is true most true that the Philosophers’ elixir can be made. But this lead is the Chymists’ Fountain itself, when it has dissolved its dregs (its nausea), that is, the earth from which it springs, and when, with a moderate and gentle fire, all these things have been cooked into one and the same and have rotted by that coction, they become a certain black, heavy earth, which is the true lead of the Philosophers. Whoever knows this lead has the whole of Alchemy laid open; for in that lead lie hidden the true gold and silver of the Philosophers, that is, the true red and white sulphur, by which the metals are transmuted into true gold and silver, and by which life is propagated and prolonged in all the mixtures of nature, and absolute perfection is communicated to all.

Concerning this lead the ancient poets prophesied much under the name Saturn. They said, to wit, that he devours all his children that is, sulphur draws up everything that in such matter lies hidden and concealed, and shuts it in its belly: that is, it digests, cooks, and brings it to ripeness. But Jupiter, seeing this, that he might cast his father from the throne, unmanned him with a sharp sickle and threw the testicles into the sea that is, the white sulphur, which after the blackness appears in our coction, by its sharp and subtle power (his “sickle”) removes the masculine virtue of the black sulphur (called Saturn), by which innumerable colours appear and are hidden; whence he is called father of the gods, that is, of their sulphurs. Jupiter i.e., the white [sulphur] when that power shows itself in it, casts it into the sea; that is, the black sulphur is dissolved and turned into the sea, from which is born kindly Venus that is, another sulphur, the green colour, which the Philosophers adorn with the name of Venus.

Side margin - What is meant by Venus born from the sea-foam.
Side margin - What is meant by Saturn swallowing the stone in Jupiter’s place.
Side margin - What Diana and Apollo, born of Latona, signify.

Thus the sages translate into figures what they do not wish to lay bare to fools.

Likewise, when Saturn wished to devour Jupiter, a stone was thrown in Jupiter’s stead; this he swallowed in place of Jupiter and afterwards vomited it up on Mount Helicon, where it was set up for mortals as a memorial. This means: when our matter, called Saturn, swallows the very whiteness that appears after the blackness that is, tries to dissolve it then that very whiteness is turned into the stone which Saturn swallows, that is to say, it is dissolved. But at length, by continued coction, he vomits it up again that is, this dissolved matter once more coagulates into a white stone. For our matter, after putrefaction and blackness, must be coagulated into a certain somewhat-white substance, which must again be dissolved and again coagulated. And so Saturn swallows the stone instead of Jupiter, and again vomits it on Mount Helicon as a perpetual monument of the deed that is, the same stone of ours emerges from the belly of putrefaction and decoction and is set upon Helicon as an everlasting memorial, meaning that it is consecrated to wisdom and knowledge.

Side margin - What is meant by Saturn as father of all the gods.

Whence at last, from that Physical Jupiter and from Latona, Diana and Apollo emerge that is, the final and perfect coction of our matter, in which the white and the red sulphur with Diana and Apollo indicated, they are brought to completion and perfection.

Thus from our physical and chymical lead all the other metals, physical and chymical, arise by coction alone; and in this we see, clearer than daylight, that the Fountain of the Chymists is first transmuted into Saturn, that is, into physical and chymical lead, and afterwards into the remaining metals. And from this same change and coction we gather that Nature in the bowels of the earth handles the Stone in the very same manner and by the same path, and cooks the matter that brings forth the metals; and this from our labor we infer indeed, we even behold it.

By what method and by what way the alchemists’ fountain becomes quicksilver (mercury).
Chapter 12.

Side margin - By what way quicksilver is made.
Side margin - The difference of quicksilver from the Fountain.

There is the closest kinship between the Fountain of the Chymists and quicksilver; so great indeed that some chymists judge them to be one and the same thing. But they are altogether mistaken, since the Fountain of the Chymists is the father, and the efficient and material cause from which common, vulgar quicksilver is produced; whence it differs from the Fountain by a whole heaven, and has many other differences.

Side margin - Differences between quicksilver and the Philosophers’ Mercury.

First, the Fountain of the Chymists produces all things and gives life to all even, on the contrary, it destroys all things, corrupts all things, and performs all the operations that attend death and dissolution.

Second, the Fountain of the Chymists is fiery and hot; but quicksilver is cold and moist.

Third, the Fountain of the Chymists, most easily by distillation, is converted into a spirit and into a fixed body; but quicksilver is spirit throughout, and in distillation it is not turned into an aqueous spirit, but rises bodily as quicksilver, in no way changed from itself.

Fourth, the spirit extracted from the Fountain of the Chymists is fiery and pontic (biting/briny), penetrating and so subtle that it even dissolves metals and, once dissolved, hands them over to death; but quicksilver cannot by distillation be converted into an aqueous pontic spirit, nor can it dissolve metals and deliver them to death rather, it only hides them in its belly and then vomits them back, separating itself from the metals with the slightest heat.

Fifth, the Fountain of the Chymists dissolves itself, congeals itself, and perfects itself, with nothing else added; but quicksilver neither dissolves itself (unless something else dissolves it), nor congeals itself (unless congealed by another), nor can it in any way be perfected by itself.

Side margin - The Chymists’ Mercury has the Sun and the Moon in its belly.

Sixth, the Fountain of the Chymists has within its belly and in its inmost parts a fixed salt, red and white indeed it is wholly salt itself, and from a saline/briny cavern it, springs forth and gushes with salt; but quicksilver is nothing other than a metal, running and unstable; and if we wish it to have salt, we must recur to its own putrefaction and death.

Seventh, the Fountain of the Chymists holds Sol and Luna in near potency, and by simple coction alone they are brought to their ultimate act which from common quicksilver we can by no artifice bring forth.

Eighth, from the Fountain of the Chymists, with nothing else added, by simple coction there is made the elixir and the true tincture of the Philosophers, which perfects all metals and the rest of things natural something that by no means can be obtained from common, vulgar quicksilver.

Ninth, the Fountain of the Chymists has within itself, in near potency, all the metals, since it is the immediate and nearest seed from which metals are made and compounded and even vulgar quicksilver itself (which, however, cannot be said of the vulgar quicksilver).

Tenth and last, the Fountain of the Chymists forms precious stones in the bowels of the earth, and all the other stones which Nature compacts in her bosom, from the freezing and coagulation of the Fountain itself into stones a thing that no philosopher or chymist has ever imagined could be said of vulgar quicksilver.

There are still innumerable other differences by which vulgar mercury differs as widely as heaven from the Philosophers’ Mercury, that is, from the Fountain of the Chymists to bring them all forward would be long and wearisome.

Side margin - How quicksilver is produced.
Side margin - Why quicksilver is found in springs.

It will suffice only that we press home upon the philochymists that common quicksilver is not our Fountain; let us now set forth the generation and production of quicksilver from our Fountain.

Nature herself shuts up our Fountain, pure salt purified by various distillations, in the hollow places of the earth’s bowels; and there she joins it with its own body of pure and subtle salt, and cooks and digests it by a coction and digestion similar to that used for the other metals; and by digesting she brings it to putrefaction, and she cooks this putrefied matter into an earth somewhat black below, and bright red, glittering and sparkling, which they call the ore or mine of Mercury, that is, natural mineral cinnabar. From this, with the slightest fire, common quicksilver is expressed; or, from that earth, or from mineral cinnabar, by natural and earthy heat the Mercurial vapors and exhalations are melted out, which in a cold place condense into common and natural quicksilver. Whence from certain springs quicksilver flows together with the very water of the spring. And on the surface of the earth, at night-time, we sometimes see quicksilver ooze out: for the vapors and exhalations that ascend from that mass of cinnabar, when they reach the earth’s surface and find it moist and cold with heavenly and nocturnal dew, condense with that moisture into quicksilver and thus from the Fountain of the Chymists quicksilver is produced and generated by a natural road, whose generation sufficiently attests its difference from our Fountain, that is, from the Philosophers’ Mercury.

By what marks the Fountain of the Chymists is designated, so that it may be known to the wise.
Chapter 13.

Side margin - The way by which the Author came to know the Philosophers’ Mercury.

What has been said in the preceding chapters about the Chymical Fountain is, if I am not mistaken, sufficient for the wise to hold this fountain to be known, that fountain from which wonders are wrought in nature and in art. At length God had pity on me, who by His mercy and kindness no merits of mine having gone before showed me this fountain and made it known to me by very many experiments. This knowledge I owe to God alone. The means which God used to show me this secret fountain were all the Treatises inserted in the Hermetic Museum printed at Frankfurt: all those golden and most learned Treatises led me out of errors and instructed me in the true physical matter. To the authors of those treatises I have immortal thanks, and whatever is mine I gladly offer to them.

And if the knowledge of these things, I would offer them something great not to pay back what was communicated and given by them, but to show them how grateful my disposition is toward them. If this little treatise on the fountains should come into their hands, let them receive it with a liberal and kindred hand; for it is theirs, and without them it would not have seen the light. It is their son and foster-child; therefore let the fathers receive the son, who so that he may be recognized as truly the son of those fathers is now about to describe their Fountain; for from it they themselves will recognize it, just as one knows the lion from his claw. He will not repeat the same or similar words which they use; rather he will use different words that will nevertheless give the same sense, so that they may understand that I too grasp what they themselves grasp.

Side margin - What the Chymists’ Fountain truly is, and how it is made.
Side margin - What sort of fire the Chymists use.
Side margin - By what names Mercury is designated.

Therefore, the Fountain of the Chymists must be drawn from two substances that have the nature of salt, yet arise from one and the same root, if a true and legitimate Fountain of the Chymists is to be had. These two matters, joined together in equal weight, reduced into an alcohol and very well mingled, and placed in a glass retort, with a very gentle fire increased by degrees, yield a fiery spirit, which is distilled into an exceedingly clear water, which is marked by the Philosophers with various names, and is especially called: the Virgin’s Milk, the sharpest Vinegar, Water, the Purified Spirit, the Subtle Part, the Part to be fixed, the Part preserved yet not fixed, the Queen, the White Woman, the True, the Heaven, the Tail, soul, Water of Life, vulture, Sister, woman, the moist, Mercury, fountain, sweat, black mist, and by many other almost innumerable names it is adorned although it is nevertheless one and the same thing: namely a water distilled from these two substances of one root, of mineral and metallic stock.

When these substances pour out that spirit into the bottom of the retort, they remain fixed and permanent, as if dead, after they have sent forth their spirit and life through the distillation. But they are to be revivified and raised from the dead by the re-infusion of their spirit upon those very materials; and when their spirit, in sufficient quantity, is poured back, it is dissolved by a very gentle fire into a sanguine substance and liquor which, with continuous cooking and a graduated digestion, increases and grows day by day; its color is blood-red, and little by little from blood-red it becomes wholly black, which with continued digestion thickens and grows unctuous.

Side margin - Here the spirit is water.

This same matter, left at the bottom before it is joined to its spirit, is also marked by many names (as is its spirit, and especially by these): it is called first of all copper or sulphur; earth or dust; the filings of the body very well calcined; the earthy and gross part; the part for ceration; the King; the body; ashes; the red husband; the dragon; the dry heat; the body deprived of spirit; black, blacker than black; the dead; the uterine brother; coal; fixed Mercury; Sun; gabertus, the male, the lower [part], and by many other names it is designated. This lower part so that it may be known to the wise when it has once been united in nature with a very most subtle spirit, the art does not separate that spirit in such a way that they should never again be joined; rather, it separates them so that, after being purified and made cleaner, they may be joined again and never afterward be separated, but remain united and be perfected together. For while, under continuous digestion, they thicken and grow unctuous, at length both are fixed by a perpetual coagulation so that they are never again separated, even though they remain molten and liquid in the fire. And this is the last sign by which our matter namely the Philosophers’ Mercury is denoted.

Side margin - The marks and signs of the Philosophers’ Mercury.

The first sign, as I said, is that the matter is twofold in name yet of one and the same kind and root.

The second sign is that the matter is mineral and of a metallic root.

The third sign is that the matter is of very easy fusion and has both volatile and fixed parts.

The fourth sign is that the volatile and fixed parts, when separated and then reunited, putrefy together and are perfected in putrefaction.

The fifth sign is that, while they are cooked and putrefy, they are dyed with innumerable colors first black, then white, and lastly red; and once it has reached that color, it is never again changed.

The sixth sign is that, when this matter has attained a most white color, the imperfect metals it changes into true and excellent silver.

The seventh sign is that when this matter, by its own cooking, has reached an immutable red heat, it turns all the metals into true gold.

And these are the most true signs and the true marks by which the Fountain of the Chymists is designated and recognized.

There are also many other signs by which the Fountain of the Chymists can be known; but these are the principal and more notable ones to which may further be added that its spirit and volatile part are of a very acid taste, penetrating, and of a very subtle substance of pontic quality.

WHETHER THE FOUNTAIN OF THE CHYMISTS, in order to be perfected, needs common gold and silver.
Chapter 14.

Side margin - The gold by which the Fountain of the Chymists is perfected what kind of gold it is.

Almost all the Spagyric Philosophers affirm that the Fountain of the Chymists, or the Philosophers’ Mercury, cannot be perfected without gold or silver; but that gold is not the gold of the vulgar, nor that silver the silver of the vulgar. Rather, it is something else, not alien or extraneous to the fountain itself; indeed, it is gold and silver born in the very bowels of the fountain itself and it is the fixed part of the fountain itself; and since it has a twofold difference red and white the red is the Philosophers’ gold, and the white is their silver. It is most true that without that gold and silver the Chymical Fountain cannot be perfected; for this is its principal part, fixed and permanent, which must render the other part fugitive and volatile fixed and permanent.

This is that part of which it is said: “If you dissolve the fixed and make the dissolved fly, and if you fix the volatile, I will make you live in safety.” For this is the gold that must be dissolved and brought into spirit by its own spirit. Who will believe that the vulgar gold can be dissolved by its own spirit and be brought into spirit by that same spirit? The very same things are said and told of silver, intrinsic and inborn in the Fountain of the Chymists.

What, however, that gold and silver are in the fountain itself, those who know the anatomy of the fountain know most certainly; for the pure spirit of the celestial Sun, joined and united with the humidity of the elements, by its own heat fixes and coagulates that humidity into a certain kind of salt, which, swelling with that heavenly heat and light, claims for itself the qualities of that heat and light and wishes to appear like its father whence it is called “gold” by the Philosophers; although in the essence of the thing it is salt and savors of the nature of salt.

Side margin - By what way the Philosophers’ gold is in the Chymists’ fountain.
Side margin - Gold and silver in the Chymists’ fountain are salt.

The same can be said of the silver; for what is silver in the fountain itself is not nor is it true silver, but it is salt contained in the fountain itself; and since that salt has the virtue and power of silver, it is called “silver.” Yet it is one and the same salt in the fountain itself, and there are not two one to be called Sun and gold, and another to be called silver; rather one and the same thing is called gold and silver from different respects. For when that salt has the sixth degree of perfection and has been brought to the utmost whiteness, then at that time it is called silver; but when that same salt has the seventh and last degree of perfection and has reached the final bound of its cooking, then it is called gold. Without that gold and silver it is most true that the Fountain of the Chymists cannot attain perfection.

Side margin - Vulgar gold why it is needed for our Stone.

As for vulgar gold, one must by no means judge that it determines the perfection of our Stone; although in the fermentation of our Stone it is necessary so that the Stone be directed to the perfection of the metals, nevertheless it does not determine the Stone’s perfection. On the contrary, our Stone determines and perfects the vulgar gold: for without the Stone the vulgar gold is altogether dead, sterile, and unfruitful; but when joined with the Stone it becomes living and fertile, communicating its perfections and gifts. Hence vulgar gold is perfected by the Stone, not conversely the Stone is not perfected by the gold.

There are many who are very worried about the dissolution and coagulation of vulgar gold: all this is useless and altogether vain. It is not this dissolution of gold that must be sought, but another that is truly natural one performed from the thing’s own parts and of the same substance. For the dissolvent and the thing to be dissolved are of one and the same substance, and thus are united radically and truly, naturally joined to each other. This true, natural solution must be searched out with all the powers of the mind; and the dissolution of gold and silver is that which, although three seem to be present namely the dissolving water, and the gold and silver to be dissolved nevertheless they are one and the same, and are enclosed in a single essence.

Side margin - What sort of chymical solution it is.

Those who have seen this mystery believe it very readily; but those who have not seen it think it a chymical chimera. Yet, to remove their unbelief, we will not give our lettuces to these asses to eat, since thistles are enough for them. The keys of our secret are not to be handed to everyone; God alone ought to communicate and deliver it to those whose soul He knows to be faithful. It is now forty years that I have labored unceasingly day and night; nevertheless I was not made possessor of so great a secret until after the fiftieth year of my age, after many vows, prayers, and fastings. Therefore, if anyone longs for these secrets, let him labor, pray, and read the best authors of this science, and above all serve God with the purest mind: thus he will obtain his desire; for unless this secret God reveal it, I do not think anyone can obtain it, unless it be revealed by a friend who, in the presence of the one to whom he wishes to disclose so great a secret, performs it; for it cannot be handed down by words and writings without many errors both in preparing the very matter, and in applying the fire, and in constructing the furnace, and in the vessel in which the matter must be thoroughly cooked, and in the weights to be used.

Whoever has not mastered all these things most excellently will assuredly go astray. But let us return to our Fountain, whose perfecting has no need of vulgar gold or silver, but only of the gold and silver which, as we said, are intrinsic and inborn to our Fountain. These metals indeed must be joined to it; with these metals it is cooked, it is digested, and at last by continual and unceasing digestion it is perfected. Finally it is joined and mixed with vulgar gold not so that it may be perfected by the gold, but so that the gold may be perfected by our very Stone. For nature has made vulgar gold dead and unfruitful, and therefore imperfect and defective; but when our Stone, or the Chymists’ Fountain, has been boiled to the ultimate degree of perfection, the gold is rendered perfect, and fruitful, and living, so that it begets its like and propagates its offspring to infinity which is the last degree of nature’s perfection, and the sign of life.

Side margin - The vulgar gold is dead by what way it becomes living.

With what weight of its own gold and silver the Fountain of the Chymists needs in order to be perfected.
Chapter 15.

Side margin - Whether nature observes a weight in making gold.

Nature observes no weight in the making of metals for why should it, since it has only one single matter upon which it works and labors? Since there is not diverse matter, but a single and only substance, there is no question of weight. But when the matter is twofold, though it be of the same substance and nature, then weight must be inquired into.

Side margin - Weight must be considered in making the Fountain of the Chymists.

For in establishing our Fountain, a double natural matter is given: one is held as the male, the other as the female. These two are joined, and from the conjunction of this male and the virgin maiden there is born the seed, that is, our Fountain. Then, at the time when the marriage is celebrated, weight must be considered; for from just any weight there does not arise seed, or a prolific fountain, but from a certain and determinate weight. Therefore, an equal weight of each matter is to be employed in the celebration of our first marriage; but in the second marriage, when the volatile part is joined to the fixed and permanent part, the weight must also be considered; for the fixed part must be dissolved and thinned and be made into water by the volatile part. Therefore the volatile part ought to be greater in quantity than the fixed part itself. Some of the Chymists place ten parts of water upon one of the fixed body; others seven; others four upon one fixed part. Here the weight may vary, provided the fixed part is dissolved by the volatile part this I judge to be truly sufficient. For then, by a continual and unceasing cooking, the volatile part is coagulated by the fixed part. If the quantity of the volatile part be excessive, coagulation is delayed; whence it is that those who do not know the perfection and nature of this thing fall into despair, when they do not see coagulation within the time legitimate and determined by the Philosophers.

I myself have not kept a set weight; rather, I joined the matters and, with a very large quantity of the volatile part, dissolved the fixed part; then, in the bath of Mary (balneum Mariae), or with a very gentle heat of ashes, I drew off the superfluous portion of the volatile matter until I saw the matter tenacious, viscous, and very black. Then I sealed the vessel with sufficiently firm fastenings and left it to be cooked for its proper time; and God blessed it and gave increase.

Side margin - What weight must be observed in the solution.
Side margin - A different weight in multiplication.

There is also yet another weight to be observed in the multiplication of the work when it has been finished and perfected: for the white work and the red must be thoroughly imbibed and it must be irrigated with its own spirit, that is, with our crude Fountain, but pure and distilled seven times. There the weight must be observed, lest the elixir be drowned; irrigate very sparingly, so that the matter is covered only to the thickness of a sword-blade. This must be done many times, until the Stone has drunk enough of its water and is completed in the most perfect whiteness or redness, with a saturated, unchangeable color, and with the easiest fusion, which befalls it from the abundance of its own moisture perfectly cooked and made fixed.

Side margin - The weight of crude Mercury in multiplication.

These weights, in all these cases, must be well noted by the Chymists; and in these cases art does not imitate nature. For nature, indeed, invisibly joins the volatile part to its fixed part; yet it observes a certain and determinate weight, though it accomplishes this in an invisible manner. For nature is shrewd and most prudent, and brings forth all things by number, weight, and measure. And I think that nature observes this same weight, even though it has no visible weights and scales: it is itself its own weight and its own scale, taking only as much as is necessary for it; the rest it rejects for the completion of other works, for nothing is useless or superfluous to it. What cannot serve one work it reserves for another as altogether necessary and very useful. And let these things suffice about the weights to be observed in perfecting the Fountain of the Chymists.

Side margin - In observing weights, art does not imitate nature.
Side margin - Nature is its own weight.

CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE WORK
Final Chapter

Side margin - The radical moisture is nature’s principle.

The radical moisture of all things the sole and unique principle of nature by which nature uses to bring forth all things we have already treated, by discussing and describing the natural fountains with which the whole earth is irrigated. For just as nature, in producing some particular mixed body, brings forth its own moisture by which the whole and each several part of the mixture is irrigated, and by such nourishment is preserved and fed: so too in the whole universe nature similarly produces a certain moisture by which the whole and each several part of the world is nourished and preserved. This moisture is the fountain of the whole universe; it is everywhere, and no part of the world can lack it, since everywhere in all things that moisture is necessary and so necessary that without it they cannot be preserved.

Side margin - The Philosophers’ Stone.
Side margin - What composes the Fountain of the Chymists.

This moisture, or universal fountain, is truly the Philosophers’ Stone, of which they most truly say that it is found everywhere, and that no one can live without it. This is the fountain which all created things need, that they may subsist; this is the true fountain from which all the fountains that upon the earth, and in the very bowels of the earth they bubble forth and have their origin. The heavenly light created by the supreme Creator of things and the elements compose and make this very Fountain, from which then all other things come to be in the universal order of things. It is not to be repeated here how the elements and that heavenly light created by God compose this Fountain, since the same has been frequently stated above in many places of this Work. Let it suffice for readers to know and recognize that this one Fountain must be known before all, so that the whole and universal series of things may be understood, and the particulars also be understood: once this Fountain is known, all the other fountains are recognized.

Side margin - True encyclopaedia depends upon the Chymists’ Fountain itself.

True encyclopaedia arises in all who have drunk of this Fountain; there is no need to toil in other books, nor to study in other Universities, since all is in this one Fountain. This is the true spring of Helicon; by drinking of it we become learned men in the knowledge of all things.

Side margin - Praises of Alchemy.
Side margin - From the Chymical Fountain is had the knowledge of all things.

What wonder, then, if we have said so many and such marvellous and astonishing things about this Fountain, since it is the true and only foundation of all nature, without which it cannot subsist, nor bring forth any virtues from itself? For it is the true soul of nature itself; without it she lies dead and truly is not. Let all those be gone who declaim against Alchemy, who assert that it is useless, nay harmful to men: since by this Fountain alone is Chymia discovered, whose usefulness is so great that it if the Fountain itself is not known, true knowledge is not given among men; for knowledge is the understanding of things through their causes, and when these causes are unknown no true knowledge can be given, nor even a spark of knowledge. But this Fountain is the true cause of all things, as has been made clear throughout this whole Work. Therefore this Fountain must be investigated, so that all things may be thoroughly known and so that true knowledge of all things may be had. You candidates and pupils of Chymy, concern yourselves with nothing else than this Fountain: this Fountain embraces the whole of Chymy, perfects the whole of Chymy, and corrects all the errors that can befall those handling it. Chymists need nothing else besides this Fountain; neither fire, nor furnace, nor vessels are necessary for them: this Fountain is their fire, their furnace, and the true natural vessel in which the sulphurs and the true tinctures of the natural philosophers are cooked. Innumerable other things could be said, and there would be no end of speaking in the exposition of this Fountain. Let it suffice for Chymists, once the Fountain has been obtained, to possess all nature, all physics, and all of Chymy, to need nothing else at all, to enjoy their desires, and to become wholly in possession of all their wishes.

Side margin - Once they possess the Chymists’ Fountain, Chymists need nothing else.


Laus & gloria aeterna sit Deo trino.

Eternal praise and glory be to the triune God.