The Chemical Theater

It is therefore harmonizing and separating so they do not destroy each other.
The Assembly said: If you had provided an example of this, it would be clearer to those who do not understand.
Response: I will gladly do so: the example is the egg, in which four things are joined. Its visible shell is earth; the white is water; the very thin skin joined to the shell is the separator between earth and water, just as I indicated to you that air is what separates earth from water. The yolk of the egg is fire; the skin Referring to the vitelline membrane. that contains the yolk is air, separating the water from the fire; and both are one and the same—the air with the cold, namely separating the earth and water from each other, is denser than the higher air. The higher air is rarer original: rarior; meaning thinner or less dense. and more subtle, for it is closer to the fire than the lower air. In the egg, therefore, four things are made: earth, water, air, and fire. But there is a point of the sun original: solis punctus; the germinal disc or 'cicatricula' where the life of the chick begins., these four excepted, in the middle of the yolk, which is the chick. Therefore, all philosophers in this most excellent art have described the egg as an example, which they have applied to their own work.

Fifth Discourse.

Arisleus Arisleus is a recurring character in alchemical literature, often identified with the historical figure Uarislis or perhaps a corruption of a Greek name. says: know that the earth is a hill, and is not flat, which is why the sun does not rise over the regions of the earth at the same hour. For if it were flat, it would rise in a single moment over the whole earth.
Parmenides says: You have spoken briefly, Arisleus.
Response: Did the master leave us anything else to say? I say, however, that God is one, never begotten, nor was He born, and that after Him, the foundation of all things is earth and fire; because fire, being thin and light, rules all things of the earth, or since the earth is heavy and dense, it carries all things which fire rules.

Sixth Discourse.

Lucas says: you speak of nothing but these four natures, and I see that each of you has said something different. I, however, notify you that all things which God created are from these four natures, and those things which have been created from them return to them. In these, creatures are generated and die, and all things occur just as God predestined.
Democritus, who is the disciple of Lucas, says: you have spoken well, master, when you discussed the four natures.
Arisleus says: Since you, Democritus, received your knowledge from Lucas, you should not presume to speak with the experts of your master.
Lucas responds: Although Democritus had the knowledge of the natures from me, he also received such things from the philosophers of the Indians and the Babylonians; I think he surpasses his contemporaries in this science.
The Assembly responds: Arriving here at that age, he will please us not a little; but now, established in his youth, he ought not to speak.