been heated by the aerial fire, namely the spirit
of sulfur, which by its decoction, the body of the
earth was vivified. In this earth, the salt that prevents
rot is found, so that nothing may be
consumed by corruption. Thus, at the beginning
of birth, argent-vif quicksilver; mercury is the first
to operate, which is still open with subtle
coagulation, insofar as it was given the smallest
part of the salt. By this, it makes more a spiritual
body appear than a terrestrial one. But the other metals,
which all come from the same substance and which have
more salt, through which they have become bodily,
all follow this one. I will therefore begin with
the spirit of mercury.

Of the Spirit of Mercury

Chapter 3.

Although I hold to a particular style
of writing that many will find strange,
and which will breed strange opinions in them,
nonetheless there are enough occasions, I say,
enough to remain in my experience. I do
not care much about the chatter of others,
insofar as they are unknown to me and that

hearsay passes everywhere, but the truth
carries the advantage over lies. Therefore,
I say that all visible and
palpable things are made of the spirit of mercury,
which precedes the terrestrial things of the whole
world. All things are made by it,
and all have their sources from it. For in it
is found all that can do all, and that
the lover of science desires to seek. It
is the beginning for working the metals,
being reduced into a spiritual substance which
is entirely air and flies here and there without
wings. It is a moving wind which, after having
been driven from its habitation by vulcan Vulcan; alchemical fire into
its cahos chaos; the primal state of matter,
returns there whole and resolves
to the elements. There it is attracted upward by the
stars by a nature aymantine magnetic nature
of them. It was first operated and issued from
them, insofar as it requires again its like
and receives it willingly into itself. But if this
spirit of mercury can be imprisoned and
made bodily, then it resolves into a body
and will become a clear, pure, and transparent water.
This is the true spiritual water and
the first root of metals and minerals:
spiritual, insensitive, incombustible, and without