On the Tincture of Gold or True Potable Gold

certainly we would have no need to fill our workshops with so many jars and boxes, nor to spend so much expense to bring in so many foreign medicinal species, because without doubt, by some easier way, it is possible to find the powers and properties of all vegetables, animals, and minerals gathered together in a few subjects. And just as the true Tincture of the sun is above all fixed, and endowed with all the powers of all vegetables, animals, and minerals; so also is the medical, curative power of all diseases justly ascribed to it, but with discretion. For there are various species of gout in the hands and feet, as well as stones and leprosy; which diseases are sometimes inveterate and incurable, and sometimes recent and curable. Who, therefore, is so insane as to promise indifferently the cures of all and every disease by means of some certain Medicine? Certainly no one, even if he possessed the very stone of the Philosophers.

For often a stone of the bladder is either excreted or cut out, being most hard and insoluble by aqua fortis; which a non-corrosive Medicine cannot dissolve; which powers, even if some ascribe them to their own Medicine, they cannot actually perform. Therefore, promises that no one can fulfill are not sufficient: for promises fall into debts, which is observed by few; wherefore the truth and the hope of the good success of Chemical Medicines are often suppressed by the haters of the art. It is better, therefore, to perform more than to promise, and the work will commend the artist.