On the Tincture of Gold or True Potable Gold

coagulation and inseparable fixation; and that neither can the spirit of wine be elaborated into a medicine without gold, nor this without that; because gold cannot be rendered volatile without the spirit of wine, nor can this be coagulated and fixed without that; not undeservedly do we, the posterity, follow the tenets of these most illustrious men—not indeed for the sake of their authority, but for the sake of the truth visually demonstrated, which proves what is true and genuine.

Therefore, since the knowledge of the preparation of this medicine has been given to me by the Most High, I have decided—because man is not born for himself alone—to give its preparation and use in brief. However, I shall not cast pearls before swine; but I shall only show the way to diligent inquirers into the works of God and nature, who will without doubt understand this writing of mine; but others, being ignorant and unskilled, will not. Therefore, let the brevity of the preparation offend no one, because I do not intend to prostitute the art (divinely obtained, not by leisure, but by many vigils, labors, and prayers), nor to administer a pre-chewed morsel to the unworthy, but only to communicate it to the pious, who will see with their own eyes that the matter is so. Let the simplicity of the style, not adorned with rhetorical figures in the usual manner, offend no one either: for Truth does not need an abundance and elegance of words, being content with simplicity and brevity, by which it is demonstrated more easily and better than by those intricate and sophistic discourses.

Before I approach the preparation, however, I shall briefly and concisely delineate the conditions of a true spagyrist,