I call you all, Mignons de la Nature Favorites of Nature,
I call you all to the sweet sound of my voice;
Come with a discreet eye to judge the depiction
That I give you here exactly as I had it.
If it were better (and no better can be
the undertaking of others) you would have it with a good heart:
May a Theater of Love make this play appear
Judging modestly the flowers of my humor.
You will be able to gather there in the vigne dorée golden vine
Of my sacred orchard, some grain of verjus acidic juice of unripe grapes;
But if the trellis is prepared by a long-practiced hand,
These sournesses will depart and will not return.
I will not prevent the world from slandering,
Rather I wish to summon this cause before them;
I take them as witnesses that I wish to say nothing
Which is not of good taste, and I do not wish to provoke them.
Whoever shall do better must publish it,
And give this Treasure to posterity;
But discretion does not say that he should ally himself
With a slandering vice full of temerity.
To criticize is easy, to do better is difficult,
And the Censor always holds some passion;
But all things considered, though they bite thread by thread,
I will appear firm in my good intention.

La Toison d'or The Golden Fleece

A decorative horizontal headpiece features symmetrical scrollwork and leaf motifs within a double-lined rectangular border.

The origin of the Stone of the Sages,

And how by artifice it can be reduced to its perfection.

First Treatise.

This Pierre des Sages Philosophers' Stone draws the pure Elements from
its essence by the assured way of a foundational Nature,
in which it improves itself according to what
Hali Likely referring to Khalid ibn Yazid or Al-Hassan, a celebrated figure in alchemical literature reports, when he says,

That this Stone influences and imbues itself entirely upon things growing and deep, conglutinating, congealing and resolving upon Nature, which renders this thing better, more perfect and of more efficacy, according to their order and the ordained time.

Upon the path and the model of such an artifice,
each person must apply themselves, and rest upon
these natural principles if they desire to receive help and
aid in their operation by the art of Nature, which
maintains itself so long and preserves itself
until, by its natural art, the time comes to
perfect the right form of its intention. Now this