Philosophical Scrutiny of the True Elixir of Life

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Most Noble, Most Excellent, and Most Learned Lord, most friendly patron!

I have carefully read your Philosophical Scrutiny of the True Elixir of Life, deduced from Hermetic principles, and I have seen that this treatise is a compendium of all other writers who have applied their mind and hand to this most noble art. It is full of authorities and reasons, and if undoubted experience confers its own token upon it, it will be complete in the threefold number and thus perfected. One must not doubt this, if the proverb is true: The Gods sell all things for labor.

If shortcuts are at hand to go through the thickets,
Some had called it a step toward folly.
Pruggmayr has built a bridge by which you will safely approach
Whatever lies open in the world, whatever lies hidden in the art.
Stop on this path, and you will be counted among the Adepts,
Nor will you lose everything for the sake of one Stone.

Leoben, January 28, 1687.

ADAM von LEBENWALD,