Chemical-Philosophical Treatise on Natural and Supernatural Things

You must now know that all metals and minerals of the earth have one matter and also one mother, from which in general all have obtained their fullest birth and corporeal essence. This matter, flowing from the center, spreads itself at the beginning into three parts, from which it constitutes a corporeal thing with the certain form of each metal. These three parts, however, are nourished only by the elements under the earth from its own body, until they have acquired their perfection. But the matter, descending from the center, conceived by the stars, produced by the elements, and formed by the earthy thing, being truly known as the matter and true mother of metals and minerals, is entirely to be equated with the center from which man himself is conceived, born, preserved, and clothed with a body. For whatever is contained in the macrocosm is also contained in the microcosm, and vice versa. Thus, those things that exist simultaneously in the macrocosm and microcosm are also given in the center of the world, as that which is composed of macrocosm and microcosm, and is a certain soul, uniting and coupling the spirit with the body. This soul is compared to water, just as it is truly water in every way, yet not in the least moisturizing like other water, but a celestial water, dry under a certain metallic and liquid substance, an animal water, friendly to all spirits, which it joins to its own body and gathers into a perfect life. Hence it is deservedly proven that water is the mother of all metals, which has become heated by a warm, fiery-airy spirit, such as the spirit of sulphur, so that its cooking might imbue the earthly body with a soul, in which salt appears manifestly as a preservative against rot, so that nothing may be consumed by corruption. In the beginning, therefore, of generation, mercury is produced first, which is still evident with its subtle coagulation, because little salt has been communicated to it; hence it exhibits a spirituous rather than an earthly body. But the other metals, which all proceed from its substance and rejoice in a more abundant salt, by which they are animated, all follow this. Now I begin from the spirit of Mercury.