Resolution and Explanation of Two Questions:
I. Why do most practitioners of the Hermetic Art, in seeking the Lapidem Philosophorum (the Philosopher’s Stone), or the Stone of the Wise, strive in vain, spending great expense, toil, and labor upon it, and yet are nevertheless unable to find the way on which they work?
II. How may one find it easily and certainly, without great costs, toil, and labor, and use it, to the honor of God and to the blessed service of his suffering, poor neighbor?
To all Lovers of True Wisdom,
for their own knowledge,
and for the happy attainment of its temporal and eternal blessings, communicated
by
J. C. S. v. Z.
Doctor of Medicine and Member of the Academy of Natural Curiosities, Nymphodorus.
Leipzig and Hamburg, 1756.
Translated to English from the book:
"Auflösung und Erläuterung zweyer Fragen: I. Warum die meisten Beflissene der Hermetischen Kunst, den Lapidem Philosophorum, oder den Stein der Weisen, vergeblich suchen ... ? II. Wie man denselben leichtlich und gewiß finden, ohne große Unkosten, Mühe und Arbeit ausmachen, und ... anwenden möge? / Allen Liebhabern der wahren Weisheit ... mitgetheilet von J. C. S. v. Z. Med. Doct. et Academ. Nat. Curios. Nymphodoro"
Preface.
One could hardly believe that in the single city of Hamburg there were more than a thousand laborants who sought the Philosopher’s Stone, partly for the Universal, partly for particular applications, spending great expense, toil, and labor upon it, and yet did not find it, but for the most part squandered their possessions and goods upon it, and finally came to the beggar’s staff; or, when they grew weary of the work grow weary, depart into foreign lands, and, having been deceived themselves, seek again to deceive others.
Out of compassion for these, whose number increases daily, I have taken the trouble to demonstrate to them the groundlessness of their errors, by thoroughly convincing them through experiments. I have arranged for most of their works—in salts, sulphurs, vitriols, antimony, butyro antimonii, and oleum vitrioli, with metals such as gold and silver, iron, copper, lead, zinc, marcasite, bismuth, and quicksilver—to be examined, partly by myself, partly by other friends, and from their own experiments I have shown them that in this way they can by no means attain their goal. Indeed, in truth, they do not even understand what they seek or what they wish to make.
But in order not to leave all of them without comfort, I have shown to the worthy and chosen the true path, how from a single Universal Matter in which all metals have their foundation and root—they may obtain the Wise Men’s Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, and learn thereby to bring forth the true Philosopher’s Stone in complete perfection.
Although indeed there are more than enough superfluous books on this art, in which everything is described at length, partly in allegories and riddles, partly in detailed but overly prolix instructions, partly in parabolical and flowery processes (which everyone interprets according to his own imagination), and partly also in true teachings, yet in these much that is confusing has been intermingled and described.
Yet I have found that the prolix and parabolical writings on this art are indeed the very reason for the many misguided labors of those lovers of this otherwise divine art, by which they are not in the least enlightened, but rather confused and led astray.
For this reason, I have resolved to treat this little tract briefly, only in two questions (as the title page indicates), and to explain everything clearly and plainly, without any circumlocution.
I can well imagine, however, that most of the worldly scholars will criticize this little tract and will seek to ridicule it, since it does not accord with the mathematical methods that are customary today mathematical-mechanical principles, proven by experiments.
These critics should know, however, that I shall not take the slightest trouble to respond to extensive objections and scoffing, nor to break the seal of the Wise by a public description of the experiments.
It is enough that I have demonstrated to the art’s devotees the properties of the Philosopher’s Stone, in fact mechanically and not described in a mysterious manner; that I have clearly shown their conflicting and useless labors to be vain, and have explained the principles of the true work in its natural order, without circumlocution.
Thus, if they reflect upon it, or wish to seek further counsel from me, they will indeed come to learn in truth what they seek, that I shall in no way deviate from these principles, but only elucidate them with several further circumstances.
Moreover, I wish that this explanation may bring back all who have gone astray from their erroneous paths, enlighten them, and lead them onto the one true way; and that they, when God grants them His grace, may attain the true purpose—namely, their own and their poor neighbor’s best, which is useful to soul and body alike.
Given in Hamburg, in December of the year 1755.
Resolution and Explanation of the First Question:
Why do most practitioners of the Hermetic Art, in seeking the Philosopher’s Stone, or the Stone of the Wise, labor in vain, spend great costs, toil, and effort upon it, and yet nevertheless cannot possibly find it in the manner in which they work?
To thoroughly resolve this magisterial question, and to clearly and plainly demonstrate to those practitioners of the Art the falsity of their labors, we must first of all explain what is to be understood by the words of the Philosopher’s Stone, or the Stone of the Wise, which is the same, and the latter is merely another name for the former, is to be understood as follows:
The Stone of the Wise is a subtle, most pure, fiery, mercurial-metallic salt, which endures in the fire, has within itself its tincturing Gold and Silver Sulphur, and flows as easily as wax before a flame. The metal into which it is cast, even in very small quantity, it penetrates through and through, just as oil penetrates leather, cleansing it of all impurity and leaving it pure, enduring in the fire.
Now, when this salt has been fermented either with Gold or Silver, it reveals in a moment its power upon common Mercury. That Mercury, which in its natural state is unripe and in the gentlest fire would flee away, is then rendered fixed in the fire, and according to the nature of its ferment, is transformed either into Gold or Silver, far finer and more perfect than that which is smelted from the ores.
And this projection or casting of the fermented Stone of the Wise upon common Mercury or quicksilver is the most advantageous and abundant in its yield because Mercury is a pure metallic water, yet still unripe and fleeting, bound neither with a metallic salt nor with sulphur. Gold, however, consists of that same living water, or quicksilver, united with a pure salt and red sulphur; silver, on the other hand, consists of that same living quicksilver, united with a pure salt and white sulphur, and has been perfected by nature over many years.
But if one were to ferment this Stone of the Wise, or this philosophical salt, with gold or silver, and cast it upon lead or tin in fusion, the result would be disadvantageous: for whereas from a single grain one might project upon 100, or 1000 grains of vulgar mercury, transmuting them into gold or silver, one would obtain scarcely 10 or 100 grains of gold or silver from lead or tin. This is because lead and tin are bound with a coarse salt and impure sulphur, which are consumed in the fire, so that only the pure mercurial water remains, which, once united with the Stone of the Wise, is converted into gold or silver.
And in the same way one would proceed with copper and iron, which contain still greater quantities of coarse salt and sulphur possess coarse salt, and far less pure mercurial water, so they would yield much less gold or silver from a single weight of the Stone, than if it had been cast upon common Mercury.
Since this salt therefore has such power, to penetrate the metal in fusion through and through, it must of necessity be similar to the metals, and also mercurial in nature, so that it mixes with their mercurial water, just as water with water, or oil with oil, unites. And since it tinges them with the color of gold or silver, it must itself contain those colors in much greater abundance than the small amount of gold or silver with which it is fermented. Thus it can impart the same to the mercurial and metallic water.
And since the volatile mercurial water is preserved in the fire, it must itself be fixed and able to withstand fire; and since it purifies the other metals from their impurities, it must itself possess the highest purity, for nothing can impart something to another which it does not itself have in power.
If one then considers how such a small quantity of this salt—e.g. one grain—can bind, fix, and make steadfast in the great melting-fire ten, one hundred, one thousand, and one hundred thousand grains of the crude, unripe, and volatile mercurial water of the metals, as soon as it is wrapped in wax, cast into the fire and into the molten stream, then one must recognize and admit its great and lofty purity, fineness, and subtle delicacy, which it has obtained through strong penetration in the Work.
These, then, are the properties of the Stone of the Wise, all of which I have recognized through more than threefold personal experience in my life and on my many travels, as I had the fortune to become acquainted with three true Adepts, and to make independent projections with their tinctures, and thereby have recognized in them what all true philosophical writers agree upon in their books.
If now the practitioners of the Art would only consider these properties of the Stone, they would themselves recognize, as all their works show, that they proceed only by guesswork imperfectly prescribed processes, without thorough knowledge of the matter, working blindly day after day, and not even knowing or understanding themselves what they wish to do; thus they torment themselves in vain, wasting their health, possessions, and goods in useless labors, and in this way can never attain, throughout their whole life, the goal they seek.
We will now review their labors and processes one after the other, and cite what is essential from them: for to describe them in form and in their full extent would fill an entire book, and would be just as useless as their attempts themselves, which serve nothing for the clarification of our question; since we only wish to show the groundlessness of these labors, namely, that the properties of the Stone of the Wise, as cited above, cannot be obtained from them.
The practitioners of the Hermetic Art are usually divided into the Universalists and the Particularists. The Universalists are those who intend to produce the Universal Stone, or the Great Work, as they call it, from a universal matter which is actually to be called the Stone of the Wise.
The Particularists, however, are those who seek only to obtain a particular tincture from raw ores and base metals, in order either to make from quicksilver or from the lesser metals, such as lead, tin, copper, and iron, a portion of gold or silver; or else to put some gold into the silver, and then extract it again through separation.
The Universalists seem to be the more reasonable, since they come closer to the true philosophers, in that they seek to accomplish the whole Work from a single universal matter. Yet they err greatly, if they understand the philosophers to mean that they make their Stone from one universal matter common to all three realms — the animal, vegetable, and mineral — for they have explained in many places themselves how they did not make the mineral Stone out of the first universal matter of all things, but out of its first matter, the universal matter of all minerals. In this, indeed, the universal matter of all things certainly lies at the foundation but required for this realm to be specified with their Mercury, Sulphur, and Salts.
If therefore the foolish Universalists, from the air, or from the imagined Spiritus mundi attracted therefrom by fancied magnets, or the aerial spirit in which all creatures live, move, and have their being — following Sendivogius or otherwise indulging in pseudophilosophical whims — seek to make the Philosopher’s Stone out of rainwater and thunder-water, May dew, or such things, as the universal matter of all things, then they must spend not only years in putrefying, distilling, and cohobating before they obtain a nitrous earth from these materials. And when at last they have it, they must purify it so often and soften and subtilize it through its spirit, until they have brought it from its blackness into whiteness, and finally into redness, and made it into a fusible salt.
And when they then wish to ferment this with gold, or the white with silver, they will at last find that it is no Philosopher’s Stone, but only a subtle nitrous salt, which is neither homogeneous with the metals, nor does it unite with them, but dries up with them, and no more gold is brought into the Mercury or into the other base metals than was already added to it as its ferment.
For they lack the mercurial oil and the metallic sulphur — the gold of the wise — which must give it its multiplying power and color. This they cannot find in these universal materials, but must necessarily recur again to the mineral kingdom. And even if they extract something from certain ores and wish to unite it with these salts, it will not penetrate them, and thus their effort and labor of many years is in vain, as I myself have indeed experienced in my younger years.
Another kind of Universalists exists, who likewise seek the Philosopher’s Stone from a single, yet specifically mineral, universal matter, which is found among all minerals, and in which all metals can be regenerated. They intend to make it from vitriol, and these are usually called the Vitriolists. These take either the naturally grown Hungarian or Goslarian vitriol, or else they make a vitriol from iron and copper, as from those red metals, in which they believe the sulphur of gold to be contained in abundance.
They dissolve the same many times with warm water, and allow it to crystallize again, until it is supposed to have separated all its yellow ochreous earth through digestion in gentle warmth. This they may repeat fifteen to twenty times, and yet still always obtain a yellow earth, so that eventually they give up, and calcine the supposed pure vitriol by itself until it becomes yellow, and afterwards either seek to distill a spirit and a very corrosive oil from it; or else they take the vitriol, calcined to yellow, and pour upon it spirit of nitre to obtain silver, or, if they wish to work upon gold, then with spirit of salt (hydrochloric acid), which they also take as a universal spirit, and pour it likewise over the vitriol, distill it, dissolve what remains again in water, cleanse it of its earth, crystallize it, then pour the previously distilled spirit once more over the crystals, distill again, and repeat this so many times until all its subtlety has been drawn into the spirit so that only a dry, loose, white earth remains. From this earth they then extract, with the phlegm of the first spirit, a salt which they take for the Diana of the Wise, purify it further by frequent solution and coagulation, until they imagine it to be sufficiently pure.
Thereupon they begin their composition of the Stone, imbibing such salt with the spirit that is completely phlegmatized, and coagulate the same in the salt until it becomes fusible. When they have progressed so far, they imbibe it with the oil and also wish to coagulate such corrosive with it, which, however, they can never achieve: for when they attempt to distill it, the glass vessels burst, and in an open vessel it refuses to coagulate, but instead volatilizes again in strong fire, and they are left with a brittle salt.
Others intend to bring this fixed salt into a tincture with a mercurial sublimatum from silver, or from gold, which they attempt to convert into an oil; but they never succeed. For the salt is indeed mineral, but it is not mercurial; thus the mercurial oil is not homogeneous with it and will not unite with it, their long and laborious work is likewise in vain, even though they may imagine they have followed Basil Valentine, the Catena Aurea, or Isaac Hollandus, for these authors understood a wholly different kind of Vitriol from the untimely ores, and treated it in quite another manner than the way in which these people have gone about their work.
Others handle the Vitriol still in another way, as a Universal Matter, and through the aforementioned repeated purification (which they claim to perform up to thirty times) make of it an oil, which, being freed from most of its earth, can no longer crystallize. This oil they take per se, as the Hermogenes Dunach, and as the sole matter of the Stone, and in a sealed vial bring it, by lamp-fire, gradually through blackness to whiteness and redness, so that it is supposed to coagulate — which, however, is an utterly impossible matter.
And even if they achieve such a thing in an open or poorly sealed vial, so that the remaining moisture separates from it over time, they obtain nothing more than a brittle, earthy salt, which has no ingress into the metals, and thus they have erred once again.
Now there are also Universalists, who are called Antimonialists, who, following the instructions of Basil Valentine, wish to make the Stone of Fire out of Antimony or Stibnite (antimony glass), and pretend to ferment it with Gold.
But they do not understand that Basil Valentine describes an entirely different ore under the name of Antimony in his Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, which contains in itself all three Principles: Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. For if they examine the common Antimony and treat it as they will, they may indeed find Mercury, Sulphur, and an earthy residue therein, but not the slightest trace of a mercurial-metallic salt.
Thus they can, according to the above-mentioned properties of the Philosopher’s Stone, of themselves recognize that they cannot make it from this, since the essential quality is missing — namely, that it should easily penetrate the metals and bind the common Mercury to endure in fire. This is lacking here, and therefore their labor is in vain.
If now we turn to investigate the Particularists, we enter into a labyrinth wherein almost the entire world of laboratory-workers is lost, and wherein countless millions have been squandered.
For since most work in Gold and Silver, and attempt, through amalgamation with common Mercury, and through combination with other metallic sulphurs — from Antimony, Vitriol, the stone Calaminaris, the Blood-Stone, Iron and Copper, Garnets, red Gold-Talc, the golden Marcasite, and Vitriolic Pyrites — to make from these a tincture multiplying Gold and Silver, or a particular Stone, such attempts require not only great expenses, but also the materials of Gold and Silver are costly in themselves, and for the most part in the end lost in their essence and reduced to nothing.
For all these tinctures do not possess the aforementioned properties of the Philosopher’s Stone, namely, that it must be a most pure, mercurial, easily fusible Salt, fixed, and penetrating into the metals, nor can they ever attain to it if they do not possess the Universal Spirit of Mercury from the true Universal Matter of all minerals, and if they do not know how to extract from it the designated metallic sulphur, to prepare and employ it for the fixing or fermentation of their Stone.
The faithful and sincere Hermogenes, in his Apocalypsis Spagyrica et Philosophica, describes these particularists and their works, so that anyone may read at length of them, and learn to guard himself against such ruinous delusions.
He divides them into five classes:
The Plutonists
The Mammonists
The Satanists
The Ashtarothists
The Vulcanists
The Plutonists are those who work with gold, in order to become rich at once, and who are misled by the true but misunderstood saying of the philosophers: that they can harvest nothing other than what they sow. For the philosophers do not mean here common gold, but the philosophical astral gold, which they introduce into the work, into their well-prepared earth, and of which they make use only at the end to bring forth common gold, in small quantity — since one ducat for the fermentation suffices, even if they wished to make hundreds of thousands and millions with their Stone.
But these sophists grind the common gold, calcine, sublime, dissolve, putrefy it, and want to make from it a tincturing oil, which can never succeed, since it has no tincture in itself other than for its own use, and therefore is unable to impart anything to others. Even if one adds to it ever so much sulphur from other ores, and with however much mercurial water they seek to extract from common mercury or butyro antimonii, they nevertheless obtain no fixed and mercurial tincture that penetrates into the base metals as the Philosopher’s Stone, according to the properties described above, must do. Instead, all their good gold is further corrupted and turned into useless slags.
The Mammonists are those who work with silver, and seek to transform it into gold by calcination and with gradus-waters: first by fixing the Moon, or making white gold, and then by trying to give it the color of gold through other coloring sulphurous minerals. With this they deceive people with false gold, gathering ill-gotten treasures; for when this gold is immediately tested in aqua fortis, and in antimony the trial is made, all that color and weight of gold disappears, when it is set into the quart with other silver and driven off with lead upon the test, and it proves to be entirely false, and they have made nothing but fixed Luna into false gold. Others pretend to draw the golden sulphur from gold and to transfer it into silver, since they then think they have obtained as much gold as they extracted, and when they attempt to restore to the extracted white gold its color again through antimony, they find in the end that all the expenses they have applied are of no account. Likewise are those who, with arsenic, bismuth, and other marcasites, attempt to make white silver from red copper, and often shamefully deceive people with it.
The Sathanists are the most cunning sophists and deceivers of the land, who, in the common mercury and bodies, after the supposed white regulus fac Mercurium per Mercurium, work and claim to extract it from metals; then afterwards animate it with regulus antimonii stibialato martialis, as their imagined golden sulphur, and think to fashion from it such an incredible tincture, that they imagine they could transform the whole sea into gold, if it were mercury.
When they then, for years long, have animated, sublimed, rectified, and made it fiery, so that the leaf of gold is in their hand, and like a strong magnet draws iron to itself, and swallows it up at once, then they believe themselves to possess the true menstruum of gold, to digest amalgamate and then boil gold and silver with it, precipitate and fix it into a red powder, and in the end have nothing but their gold and silver; indeed, when it is made too fiery and subtle, it volatilizes all the gold, and carries it off through the chimney. Thus, after much indescribable toil and labor, they are deceived, and obtain nothing but an imaginary and impossible multiplication of gold.
The Astarotists are the most dreadful sorcerers, who deal with common sulphur, and either seek to sulphurize silver in the flux with it and thereby make gold; or amalgamate lead and common mercury with lead or bismuth, and let it digest for months in a gentle flux, intending to bring forth veins of silver or gold; or otherwise extract sulphur and colors from other metals and minerals by all sorts of menstruums, such as spirit of wine, spirit of sal ammoniac, or urine, distilled vinegar, aqua regis, and waters prepared from every kind of thing they call Gradir-Wasser, and without the true universal fountain, intend to make particular tinctures from it.
All these gain nothing but black slags as the reward for their toil and stinking labor.
The Vulcanists, finally, are the coarse blacksmith’s servants, who attempt to improve everything by melting it with corrosives and metals, and seek thereby to reduce crude substances to malleable gold and silver. They produce all manner of vitreous substances and glasses from lead, copper, and iron, with saltpeter, potash, zinc, and other golden-colored marcasites, into which they believe they can introduce sulphur, and melt silver many times with these, in order to bring a grain of gold into it. But they are all mistaken, for these sulphurous additions cling only externally to the Luna (silver), without penetrating into its innermost essence, as the Stone of the Wise must do, entering like an oil into leather. Therefore, their manufactured gold from silver cannot withstand either the cupellation or quartation test, and all their effort, labor, and heavy expense are spent in vain.
To this class also belong those who, following the instructions of Isaac Hollandus, seek by means of strong fire to calcine metals, to dissolve them into salts, and to make oils from them, and to prepare particular tinctures from them. But all this is vain labor, since they lack the true Universal Mercurial Water, Sulphur, and Salt, which Isaac Hollandus himself in the doctrine of metals, of oils and salts, makes it quite clear.
Beyond these metallic Particularists there are still various swindlers, trash-dealers, dung-merchants, swine-bellows, and soot-peddlers, who seek to make particular tinctures from urine, human excrement, pig fat, blood, and chimney soot, and to ferment them with gold. But none of these are worth any notice, for they can be easily refuted. Even the least knowledgeable observer of the metallic realm will recognize the absurdity, since their salts and sulphurs do not enter into the metals as required by the Stone of the Wise. Thus all their labor, effort, and expense are spent in vain.
Therefore, let everyone beware of all the processes of Particularists and Universalists that lie outside the metallic realm, or even within it but without the true metallic principles—namely our mercurial water, sulphur, and salt—which must be employed. Without these, and without the described properties of the Stone of the Wise, nothing can be achieved. Instead, follow firmly and without hesitation the fundamental principles, which will be explained and clarified in the following question.
Resolution and Explanation of the Second Question:
How one may easily and surely find the Philosopher’s Stone, without great expense, toil, and labor, and how it may be applied to the honor of God and in service to one’s poor and suffering neighbor?
Since I have now presented to my kind reader the useless and vain labors of most practitioners of the Hermetic Art, as a warning for him to guard himself against them, and not to waste his time and wealth in such fruitless endeavors, but rather to recognize the abyss of their works and the properties that the true Philosopher’s Stone must and shall possess—having shown this clearly and distinctly—so too will I, in accordance with my promise, now set forth the means and methods by which he may come to the knowledge of the true Stone, and find it easily and surely, and without…
…without great expense, toil, and labor.
Above all things, he must set the fear of the LORD, which is the beginning of wisdom, as the foundation, renounce all greed and avarice in pursuing it, and firmly resolve to employ it solely for the improvement of his temporal condition in the fear of God, for His honor, and for the service of his poor and suffering neighbor, especially the poor of his own household. In such a disposition he may be assured of the blessing of God, which is particularly required for this work.
Furthermore, he must form a proper and clear conception of the properties of the Philosopher’s Stone, as were described above in the answer to the first question, and keep these continually before his eyes in all his labors, so that he does not miss his ultimate goal, and through uncertainty in his intent, fall back into the labyrinth of the aforementioned Universal and Particular sophists.
The chief properties of this Stone are that it is a subtle, most pure, fixed, metallic, mercurial salt, which endures the fire, contains within itself its tinging gold- and silver-sulphur, and flows as easily as wax before a light, penetrating and permeating the metal into which it is cast in very small quantity, and preserving its pure mercury in the fire.
If you now carefully reflect upon this description, you will see for yourself that the matter from which you must make such a salt must necessarily also be metallic, mercurial, sulphurous, and saline. For what a thing does not itself already possess, it cannot impart to another. And from this arises the error of most experimenters, that they labor with false materials.
Therefore, our matter must contain within itself all three principles—Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt—and these must be specifically mineral. For what Nature has not specified, the artist cannot in any way specify, since he is not God, who created Nature and gave to all things their properties specified in their kind by Nature, for the artist cannot possibly imitate it otherwise, but only proceed within the specified seeds of their kind, to imitate by art the purification and multiplication that Nature performs.
These principles must also be raw, unripe, and impure in this matter, and since all of Nature is under the curse, they cannot be pure, but are still mixed with many earthy, stony, watery, and sulphurous impurities, and contain them within. But since our Stone must be most subtle, most pure, and free from all impurity, these must all be driven away, and the purest principles made yet more subtle, according to the axiom of the Wise: Fac fixum volatile et volatile fixum—make the fixed volatile, and the volatile fixed.
Therein consists the whole art, which brings forth such a miraculous Stone, and upon nothing else must your thoughts be directed.
Thus, all mineral ores—whatever names they may bear—are the materials from which our Stone can be made, if they only contain these three principles in an unripe state. But since one ore contains these principles more purely than another, and in greater quantity, the philosophers have singled out one, in which they found them to be purest and strongest, and which they, in order not to confuse it with the unworthy, have named with countless titles.
This one alone is the Electrum minerale immaturum of Paracelsus, which contains the seed of all seven metals within itself, and which others have called Saturnum, Magnesiam, and Basilius Valentinus Antimonium and Vitriolum. But all these are not to be understood as the common and already smelted and leached lead, antimony, and vitriol from the mines, but as coming directly from the ore, chosen from its root itself, and broken off from its stem-tree.
This ore must now, with its own universal mercurial water, from which it has grown together with all creatures, be separated from its mountain and impurity, and from it these three principles are to be extracted; for this is the preliminary work in the art, which the Master’s work consists of, proceeding with washing and cleansing, and the greatest effort is required before one can make the matter apt and fit for our work: Reddere massam habilem, hoc opus, hic labor est.
When you have then drawn out this saturnine water, in which Saturn has devoured all his children, the seven metals, and holds them in his body, from the ore (minera), you must separate it by repeated distillations from the large earth still clinging to it. Once this is done, you need no other materials, nor should you allow anything foreign to enter in, for here you already have everything that is necessary for the entire work.
From the first distillation, a great corrosive oil will come over, which must be separated by rectification and driven off with strong fire, and carefully preserved.
In the further distillations you will obtain its Mercury or mercurial water, and its spirit and sulphur in the form of a red oil. In the Caput Mortuum you will have its salt, which you must cleanse from its earth with water, and then cohobate it several times with its mercurial water must, until you thereby obtain the Azoth of the Wise, a fatty, heavy mercurial water, which you can cleanse of all phlegma by gentle fire, and rectify until it becomes clear and bright like a tear from the eye. The thick yellow spirit, and the red sulphur-oil, rectify each separately, and keep them until their use in the following works.
When the Caput mortuum is then entirely freed of its sulphur through repeated cohobations, draw from it with the phlegma of the mercurial water its salt, and make it very white and exceedingly dry.
This salt is the true Diana of the Wise, but it is by far not yet apt to enter into the metals, still less to tinge, although it resists the fire; for it still has too much of its earth with it, which makes it unfit. And from these earths the true Mercury of the Wise must be extracted, with its mercurial water, which they then call their Mercurius duplicatus, through which the true pure is separated from the impure.
And here the afterwork begins.
Here now begin the philosophical sublimations themselves, in which the Mercury must be killed seven times, and seven times brought back to life, until the seven eagles, all seven metals, are bored through one after another and shown, so that the seventh reaches the degree of gold, and rises from its earth as a foliated earth, and then the fixed has been made volatile.
This work is the greatest secret of the Wise, of which only a few write sincerely, and it cannot be fully described in words; instead, the practitioner must ask God for understanding, and read the books of the philosophers with reflection, or seek out a master who will show him by hand how these imbibitions and sublimations of Mercury are to be done. To this end, the seventy-year-old author of this treatise, as long as he is still alive, is ready to give thorough instruction, and he may be reached by informing the widow of the late Johann Heinrich Spiering, bookseller, at the Marien Magdalenen Kirchhof in Hamburg, of one’s name and place of residence.
If, however, he wished to avoid this effort, the philosophical sublimations of Mercury, which are necessary for the Universal Stone, and which require a long time for their perfection, and instead wished to content himself with a Particular, then he has now for Particular tinctures the true Universal Menstruum from the prepared Azoth or Mercurial Water, with which he can extract sulphurs from other golden minerals, imbue this salt with them, and join it with its own sulphuric parts through boiling, so that within a month he can make such a Particular tincture. For without this Universal Fountain, no Particulars can be made profitably, as has been shown above in the first question.
If, on the other hand, he wishes to make the Universal, then these sublimations of the salt must absolutely precede, and the Mercury must be made duplicatus, for otherwise the Stone cannot obtain the required liquidity and great multiplication. When, therefore, our Mercury has been thus subtilized, and the Hermaphrodite of the Wise has been attained, then a part of it is dissolved in its Spirit of Mercury is dissolved, by which the Stone must be imbibed and multiplied; the other part is precipitated, with the corrosive oil obtained and carefully preserved at the beginning, according to its proper weight, and coagulated into a firm Stone by degrees. Then the Universal Tincture for whitening, to be fermented with Silver, is completed, and the volatile has again been fixed.
This white Stone, however, which is still very brittle and by no means yet of great efficacy, must then again be imbibed and incarnated by degrees with its aforesaid preserved Spirit; and finally it must also be imbibed seven times with its red oil, and thus fermented to the red tincture with Gold.
This fermented Stone can then be further multiplied through its white or red oil with dissolved Mercury Duplicatum, whereupon the philosophical books make no further secret.
And so I have shown you, dear reader, in few and brief words, the solution and explanation of the second question: how you may find the Philosopher’s Stone easily and surely, and without great expenses, which in materials do not amount to ten Reichsthaler (Silver coin - used in the Holy Roman Empire and much of Europe from the 16th to the 19th century), you may accomplish with little toil and labor.
Yet I adjure you before God, the giver of all good things, that you do not misuse this wealth; but if God, through this little treatise, lets his light arise upon you, and grants you success in this Art, then let it serve solely to the honor of God, and next, according to your convenience, secretly for the service of your suffering poor neighbor, especially the household poor, and to give assistance to poor widows and orphans. And also, to the aged author of this little tract, who, because of his advanced years, cannot himself work further in this art, nor his loyal master and companions, nor his family, after his death, as you may learn from the above-mentioned widow of the publisher, remain with them in gratitude, sharing a part of your blessed profit.
Now you will, my dear reader, perhaps wonder, and without doubt with justified thought in your heart ask: Since this author writes so clearly and openly about this great work, why then has he not made it himself, and made his house, as others would wish, rich, if he indeed could have made himself rich?
I am also obliged to answer this question, in order to bring you out of error, sincerely and truthfully. Know then, that the ways of the Lord are wonderful in dealing with us human children, and the circumstances of the world are so changeable that we often cannot comprehend their causes and reasons. From my youth I was inclined toward very confused and far-reaching affairs, so that I could find no lasting peace in any matter, but instead wandered much in my youth on many journeys, and, as a physician, experimented much uselessly in chemistry.
At about thirty years of age I became entangled in affairs of state, in which I had neither freedom nor rest to devote myself personally to chemistry, but had much experimented through others. However, I had the good fortune to become acquainted, little by little on my journeys, with three Adepts, from whom I learned the foundations of the true art, also observed their works, and with their tinctures myself performed more than five times projections, and transmuted gold and silver out of common mercury. Yet these good teachers and companions, through the envy of the Devil—who is the greatest enemy and disturber of this art and by the malice of envious men, as well as the wickedness of rapacious people, who mixed themselves with their goods into foreign worldly dealings, in order to come to high honors, and allowed their works to become public, all was brought to ruin.
One of them, because of hostile correspondence, through which he sent aid to the suffering, was imprisoned, where he died after three years.
Another, after exchanging several thousand ducats’ worth of gold in a certain city’s mint and bringing it home to his estate, was attacked the following night by a band of robbers, among whom without doubt were the instigators, became invisible to them, was overpowered, gagged, and—though he handed over all his money—was miserably nailed down on the wooden floor, both by hands and feet, so that he could not pursue them. The next morning, when he was freed by his people, he died three days later from his wounds.
The third, together with his companions, became altogether invisible, so that I have heard nothing more from him since, and I believe he went to East India.
As for myself, although I have always proceeded very cautiously in my official business, I have nevertheless been so fortunate that I have been blessed with a fifty-year state imprisonment, which I had to endure, until at my fiftieth year I was finally freed again.
And since I had thereby lost all my possessions, I set out for Holland, from where I, in hope of regaining my means, went to the West Indies to serve in the Portuguese mining works. But there too I was deceived, for the much-acclaimed silver mines turned out to be nothing. After seven years, I returned here to Hamburg, where, as a physician, I must run and strive to earn my daily bread, having neither time nor financial means to work out this treatise in peace and quiet, without the cares of livelihood.
Therefore, I have refrained from working on gold and silver, due to the misfortunes of my teachers and companions, since the presence of many overseers prevents me from practicing secretly, nor am I willing to put my life in danger for it, until now I still hold my vow, that I shall not work openly on it, until by other good friends’ assistance I may obtain a secure place for myself to provide for my peaceful sustenance.
Thus, in order that this knowledge of mine should not die with me, and that it may serve other friends who will assist me, to leave behind this little treatise, to the honor of God and in service of my neighbor, as sincerely as possible, in brief, without riddles and allegories, of which you may find enough in the philosophical books.
If you now find yourself, my dear reader, by the grace of God, to be deemed worthy of this divine gift, and if you have the earnest resolve not to misuse it, nor to keep it all for yourself out of shameful greed, for vain pomp and luxury, but rather, as has been said, for your own convenience, for the honor of God, and for the aid of your needy neighbor, especially for poor widows and orphans; then know also to act so prudently, that you do not thereby make yourself widely known, nor seek to obtain great honors and dignities thereby. For this has been the downfall of all the most unfortunate adepts, who, in their ruin, have learned that one must firmly resolve that no courtiers will ever grant the fortune of a favorite, but rather will surely, sooner or later, seek your fall, even if they flatter you with smiling faces, to bring you down; and that you may keep your treasure secret, and because of the robbers and thieves who dig for gold and silver, not carry it openly in your hand, nor make it publicly known.
Furthermore, that you are your own master, and no one is owed by you, but that from your own means, without cares and external business, you have sufficient wealth to live several years, so that you may apply yourself with peace and tranquility to this work, and, if it can be, with one or two faithful assistants, who may share equally in the same knowledge and take part in it; then apply yourself in God’s name to the principles written in this little treatise, guard yourself from all other sophistical labors, and remain steadfast in the same, and you will not lack God’s help.
But if you also wish to undertake the Universal Work, you must be experienced and practiced in chemical labors; and although I have written here everything clearly and plainly according to its order, yet you will still have much to discover in the work itself, and it will be necessary to learn it through experiments and practice; especially the right matter, from which alone and since everything necessary for the Work must be derived from it alone, without adding anything else, you must labor to recognize it, so that you do not fall upon an improper matter, and be forced to undertake too many experiments in order to reach the final goal.
For the sublimations and precipitations of the Mercurius Duplicatus are of such a kind, having certain signs and stages, which you must first learn through experiment, and which are not permitted to be described openly in a public book. Likewise, some knots regarding the Incineration and Multiplication of the Stone of the Wise have been kept back, which you will need to know.
Thus the author of this little treatise offers—if one makes himself known to him personally or by writing, through the address of the aforementioned publisher—for a reward of one hundred ducats or four hundred gulden in German money, to teach, either orally or in writing, all those matters not sufficiently explained in this treatise, in ten to twenty special lessons: namely, to name the true Matter, which in this treatise is called Electrum minerale immaturum, by its proper name, and to place it in one’s hands to give it into one’s hands, to show its signs and marks, to point out to him the best authors and the surest passages of the philosophers, from which he might be fully convinced, to explain all the riddles and allegories according to these sayings, and to instruct him thoroughly also in all that is still omitted, so that he may accomplish the Work much more easily, much sooner, and with fewer expenses—for otherwise he might well have to spend more than seven hundred ducats on experiments.
He will then reserve nothing further for himself from these prescribed labors, except for half of the Mercurius Duplicatus that the pupil shall prepare under his instruction, which the author requires for medicine, and from which he willingly allows the pupil, at the end, to keep what remains for himself from the tinctures. For if the author has only the medicine of the Mercurius Duplicatus for the preservation of his and his patients’ health, he is well content, and it is in the least not about silver and gold, but only about what necessity and the maintenance of his family require.
For as his years are now drawing to an end, he wishes to bring this tractate to a close sincerely written correctly, so that he need not doubt, many will thereby find their fortune; and if they are assured of God’s blessing in it, they will willingly share a part of their gain with his family, so that they will be provided for abundantly enough. Thus, they will not be obliged to give him their support, unless they freely wish to do so, in order to secure for themselves a safe retreat in secret.
As for what the lovers of the Art may otherwise intend for spiritual purposes in this Work, I need not write much about it, since they may read it abundantly in the books of the Wise: namely, how they will learn to know God and themselves through these labors; how, in attaining this gift of God, they will no longer need to drag themselves along with incurable illnesses, but will be able to maintain themselves in constant health until the span of life set by God; and how they will no longer need to be tormented with anxieties for daily sustenance, but will be secured from all poverty, freed and loosed from all deceitful practices of human dealings, and become a contented being, with all the great good, from the hand from the hand of the Most High they may receive, possess, and thereby be able to help many poor people, whereby they serve God most in the love of their neighbor, and prepare for themselves eternal blessedness, together with a far greater reward in heaven, even here in this world.
All this I wish for them with all my heart, and with this I have desired to dedicate and sacrifice this little work for their benefit.
THE END