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the Philosophers - which I cannot believe, because the crystalline dry water of the Philosophers and the arcanum of
Nature are different from what the author thinks. The latter decompose gold, so that it can never again be brought
into a Body ( ), unless it is done by projection. But according to the processes of our author, gold can again be
reverted into a Body with little effort, and this crystalline water and out author's vinegar of Nature cannot do much
that it would completely discard its covers and stand there naked. In addition, one is said to decompose the Body ( );
the other, to extract it, which is against all Philosophers. They always say that calcining, sublimating, fixing, etc., are
all one work, and that it is done in a closed vessel and furnace. If this is true, as it is indeed, it must follow that the
author never understood the views of the Philosophers, much less prepared Nature's vinegar and making potable
gold thereby. This process can therefore not be a quintessence of ( ), no matter how often he insists that we must
follow Nature.
This would nevertheless be a good teacher if he also showed the way of Nature, in which one should certainly walk.
Nature does not lead us astray, provided we do not digress from her. She gives us the natural bodies and spirits in
which the Art must work - prepare, purify and ready them, to become that which the Art had intended to make of
them at the start. But at the same time she shows us, as if pointing with a finger, where we should direct our eyes,
that is, to her work, as she operates in her workshop, and not as the misleading alchymists require in their false
books, ever boasting of high matters. I am not speaking of the books of the Philosophers, however, although they are
obscure and cannot be understood at the beginning. Therefore Baccaser says in the Turba: Qui longanimis erit
libenterq; patientia fruitur in tramite justo hujus artis meabit, etc. It is a good warning.
It is the same with the vinegar of Nature. Nature has already prepared it. We must not make it under any
circumstances but only take it out of her vinegar-jar. It is vinegar against Nature, sweet, pleasantly tasting and
crysta-clear. Therefore it does not wet the hand and is called the most acid vinegar (acetum acerrimum) by the
Philosophers, which are strange words. This vinegar correctly decomposes gold into its Principles, simultaneously
extracting its tincture. Our author's process is unable to do this, and it is nothing but a preparation of the Body for
turning it into a liquid. It differs very little from the other preparations, because for a quintessence all three
Principles must be well purified. Here, the tincture and the Sulphur are indeed purified, but where are the other two,
Salt and Mercury? Mercury, which appears in the form of a beautiful clear water, must likewise be brought to the
highest degree of purity. The Salt also must be sublimated into a transparency, like diamonds or rubies. Then a
quintessence can follow.
All this can be accomplished by the vinegar of Nature alone, without decanting or distilling. The common man will
not believe this, because he calcines gold himself, dissolves and extracts it himself, thus believing that he can
produce a quintessence. According to our author's instructions, gold must first be turned into a fulminating gold,
then mixed with the vitriolized tartar, then cemented for fully 18 weeks. With the vitriolized menstruum the Sulphur
is first extracted. This is saying it in a few words, but the work is so long that it becomes extremely tedious. Even so,
there is something to it. This process is good enough to work after it, but you have to remember that it does not
result in a quintessence, as our author believes. But whoever wants to obtain a fine essence in a short time, may
work as follows:
I took the calcined gold and poured on it the secret spirit of vitriol. It dissolved the gold within 24 hours and
extracted an essence like a ruby, leaving a white Body like fixed silver. Thus I could obtain the whole preparation
and perfection within 8 days, because the real spirit of vitriol has the power of attacking, decomposing, and
liquefying gold without violence. No other menstruum can easily do this, except that which I saw at a good friend's,
of which I also spoke above. Anyone in possession of it could produce the quintessence of gold - but not everything
is revealed to us, nor would it always be good to do so.
But how the secret spirit of vitriol, which so nicely dissolves gold, is to be prepared will be reported below under its
title, to which I hereby wish to refer the kind reader. What is missing here will be disclosed there.
Here I wil teach you to prepare a secret spirit for making potable ( ) which tastes as good as a Seville orange. It
subdues gold, causing it to melt in any liquid, yes, in rainwater, and it tinges bloodred. I have always considered this
my greatest secret, and am still considering it such. I will communicate it here out of goodwill, but on condition that
I am rightly understood. Whoever does not understand had better leave it, or else he might accuse me of misleading
him. Yet I can say in good conscious that I am writing nothing but the truth, and I here reveal what I have made with
my own hands. With this spirit gold becomes so beautiful and pleasant that it is amazing, and not one in a hundred
will believe that there is so much power in this spirit. For if filed gold is simply put in it and subjected to a mild
digestion, it will lose its luster and change into the highest redness. The spirit, however, unites with the gold and
disappears - and Body and Spirit result in one sweet Body. No menstruum can do this, except the Universal of the
world and the Philosophers, no matter what the laboratory workers write - it is not important. You must know,
however, that this spirit must not be made more often than once a year, for various reasons, and this is no sophistry
as some imagine. Although it can be made at any time, it does not have the power of decomposing gold, at which I
myself have been surprised.
But so as not to keep you waiting any longer, know that in the soil near silver mines a special brown earth is found
between the galleries. When the sun enters the constellation Cancer and at full moon, which happens every year
about mid-June, that earth turns beautifully yellow, as if it were covered with the finest gold. It does not last for
more than three hours when it disappears again and the gold vanishes in one moment, so to speak. I observed this
carefully at Freiberg in Meissen. You have to wait for it attentively, otherwise you will not notice it. You must not [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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