Chemical-Philosophical Treatise on Natural and Supernatural Things

I believe you have now sufficiently understood, in place of a beginning, the natural and supernatural doctrine concerning this first tincture and the root of Metals and Minerals, upon which the cornerstone is superimposed and the truest rock is founded in general. Here, nature has hidden and concealed her gifts too deeply. It is in the fiery and tinctured spirits, which color it has acquired from the heaven of the stars through the operation of the Elements, and thus it was able to dye and fix further what was not yet dyed and fixed, since the Moon is destitute of the habit of the golden crown and fixity, as are Saturn, Jupiter, and Mercury. Although Mars and Mercury have no need of a garment, but could communicate it to the other five, I say nevertheless that they can achieve nothing that makes for opulence without the lion, since they are not sufficiently instructed in the fixity of their Mercury and the subtlety of their salt, unless they are overcome in the contest by the lion, so that they might both carry off the triumph, being elevated furthermore into no small improvement. This improvement lies hidden in the signed star or in its magnet, from which all metals have received their gifts. I shall now proceed to generation in particular, how the Archæus the formative vital force of nature exhibits its virtue, pours it out, and draws it into the light, from which all forms of metals and minerals are presented to the eyes and are formed and fortified with a body by the incomprehensible and volatile fiery spirits of minerals. Therefore, receive it now, and attend with study, lest by forgetting you lose great things, or pass over the most useful while observing only the bare letters in a prolix manner, the principal way being neglected. For whatever I write here, I fear that the greatest things may be sold by many as the smallest, and the smallest as the greatest mysteries.