On the Division of Chymistry. 5

it is evident, and indeed even in the fluid salts themselves, when they are deprived of their water or phlegma watery/insipid portion; but we shall treat of these more extensively later in the operations.

From these two principles, namely fluid and firm, arise the following principles of the chemists. Although they may seem to our external senses to differ from one another, they nonetheless easily concur in these two, and can be reduced to them, namely into spirituous and airy water and spongy earth. It must be noted, however, that these following principles cannot be produced from all bodies by any art; indeed, they most often require great artifice so that only a single principle may be produced from some of them. These act out a mimic life rather than a true one, as is clear in most underground original: "subterraneis" things, and especially in metals. Thus, these ought to be considered as if they were drawn out only from the bodies of the second and third kingdom, such as vegetables and animals, which behave in the following manner.

Mercury or spirit is a part of the mixture, most subtle, active, and penetrating, consisting of very thin particles, mobile in every direction, and to say it in one word, a particle of the ethereal aura, infused into all bodies to produce their actions, as from it all generation and motion usually depend, and which could be called the soul of the world original: "anima mundi". This is produced by various means by art.