Gold Not Gold

P.45. Ad Riol.p.21

when they are found in minerals in bare potency, not in act (for who will find what is not?), nor in their own nature, but in the nature of the earth (as they say), how can they be the proximate matter of metals? Or they can only be, but they should not be at all, as Morefinus syllogizes. But more on these elements hereafter. Meanwhile, to the chemists (I almost said, the chimeras of men), that they should be forbidden from water and fire, is considered just, who forbid both water and fire from the elements of metals. But let the royal majesty of Gold enjoy its privilege, however much it liquefies in King's water, but let it not be harmed even by fire, with this eulogy of the Philosopher, monos o pyroutai alone is it tested by fire, and this of the Poet,
--to it alone nothing is lost.--

But this Hermaphrodite a hybrid/combination (as if composed from the Hermetic and the Aristotelian, and yet wise in neither) for the sake of his paramour gold, does not say he deprives, but depraves, weakens, and demolishes the primary foundations, firmaments, emoluments, ornaments, defenses, and monuments of Nature, namely the four elements. For it also resists the corruption of the air. Concerning air, corrupt and corrupting, as Lipsius speaks of the common people. Thus indeed the elements are, as we once felt, so are most things from the elements, as we experience today; if they defend, they are especially necessary; if they attack, they are very harmful; swords, but double-edged; phalanxes, but amphistomoi double-mouthed; arguments, but antistrephonta reversible. Fire, if it favors, what does it cherish more lovingly? If it rages (which he says it rages), what does it burn more horribly? Water cools, what is more bland? It submerges, what is more harsh? Earth sustains, what is more fruitful? It presses, what is more burdensome? Air refreshes, what is more wholesome? It infects, what is more pestilential? It is a thunderbolt, or it expiates, or it overwhelms. It is Juno, and she brings forth Hebe, by whom we flourish; and Mars, by whom we perish. It is Apollo, both apollyon destroyer and apolyon deliverer, bringing ruin by his withdrawal, and birth by his approach. A protection, if pure, thin, open, serene, tempered: a ruin, if impure, thick, cloudy, enclosed, putrefying. You can choose the rest, while they please; if they displease, you can flee: