On the Tincture of Gold or True Potable Gold

simple; not proud and glorious, but pious and honest, handling coals instead of gold rings, not the associates of many men, silent, contemplators of natural secrets, seeking and finding with the grace of God assisting; not relying upon the writings of the ancient philosophers, but upon God the Highest, the teacher of all, whose kindness is the same now as it was formerly in the times of the philosophers, who obtained their art from God by fervent prayers. And to these men the arts occur, and indeed beyond their hope and expectation, as well as the use of those same things and the method of employing them.

Wherefore, let those who are about to undertake this art examine themselves diligently. For nothing will help anyone who is not of the number of these latter ones—neither their own wealth, nor eloquence, nor imagined learning—because this art is a gift of God alone, not of men. Having therefore heard the properties of the true Spagyrist, the reaper of the fruits of the golden tree, I am now about to begin the preparation of the Tincture of Sol through the hand of a skilled and experienced artist, and I shall demonstrate the difference between the true and the false Tincture, as well as the medical use of the true one for the sake of overcoming many diseases; as it follows hereafter.

℞. Of living gold 1 part, and 3 parts of living mercury—not the common kind, but the philosophical, found everywhere without expense and labor (you may also mix in quicksilver of a weight equal to the solar [gold], and indeed more correctly than gold alone, on account of the greater variety of colors proceeding from the mix-