Those things which lead to the Theory of the Philosophical Stone are explained

Chapter III

1. In any body, there is a center and a place for its seed, fixed by its nature. However, it is made volatile or turned into sperm through art. Not all the grain, or what is called sulfur or sulfurous mercury, turns entirely into seed. But these two Mercuries join together in the body. Mercury requires multiplication. The cold and moist one dominates in the beginning, but by excessive heat and cold and other things added to it, it is afterward preserved by the continuous and persistent action of heat. It guards the path of nature. Regarding the aforementioned mercury, that fixed mercury or tund? is found in metals. Through art, there is a vivification of that fixed sulfur, which is mixed with volatile mercury, from which their tintura tincture or anima soul is extracted. It dominates the coldness and moistness of the volatile mercury. This is the mercurial part of the metals themselves, which our Philosophers call the tincture, soul, or oil of the Sun Gold or the Moon Silver. As the matter is altered through various degrees and always more perfectly by continued cooking, different colors appear, the principal of which are:

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2. Regarding the Philosophical Stone, we must observe how nature works around the generation of metals. Every like generates its like: any tree produces fruit of its own species. Among animals, only beasts generate beasts. Without man, man is not generated. So also metal is made and multiplied through metal. The ingenuity of art does not introduce anything new into the natural root, but nature does all things with art assisting. Since all things are generated:

Two mercuries are found: namely, the mercury of middle substance, which is cold and moist and by its nature volatile ☿, and the mercury of the sun ☉, which is hot and dry. These two Mercuries join. The cold and moist mercury dominates in the beginning, but afterward, from the continuous action of persistent heat, that fixed mercury, or that fixed sulfur which is mixed with the volatile mercury, dominates. It overcomes the coldness and moistness of the volatile mercury. As the matter is altered through various degrees and always more perfectly by continued cooking, different colors appear, the principal of which are: nigredo blackness, albedo whiteness, flavędo yellowness, and rubędo redness.

Every like generates its like: any tree produces fruit of its own species. Among animals, only beasts generate. Without man, man is not generated. So also metal is made and multiplied through metal. The ingenuity of art does not introduce anything new into the natural root, but nature does all things with art assisting. Since all things are generated...