The Instructed Beginner in Chemistry: A Hermetic Epistle

says: that without this universal spirit, nothing can happen in the mastery of this art. And he who desires to make our Stone is obliged to search only for that universal magnet, without which there is nothing, and no one discovers anything. As he also adds with clear words regarding the Regulus of Iron and Antimony Regulo Martiali Antimoniali: that those working in this deviate from the right path, like vultures and storks, etc., and that they do not understand the words of the Sages.

From the aforementioned it therefore appears as clear as the sun that not only the Regulus metallic button, but also gold, silver, and all common metals, as well as all minerals, both the first and the middle ones which are commonly known, are certainly excluded from this art, as Paracelsus confirms in his Alchemical Collections original: "Congeriis Chym." chapter 7 and chapter 8. And concerning this point, you can also look up Richard the Englishman in his Correction original: "Correct." chapter 15. Therefore Avicenna speaks to his son Aboalus after the 8th chapter: our gold is a heavenly, metallic, and primal vapor,

and a beginning gold, with which vapor nature brings forth metals under the earth by gently coagulating solidifying and boiling it through, etc. Just as we ourselves on the earth, where we imitate nature, bring forth metals through solution dissolving, coagulation solidifying, and gentle boiling of this vapor. Therefore Sendivogius adds, in his New Light original: "novo Lumine" Treatise 4, that the alchemists seek in vain to return the metals into their first matter, which matter is only a vapor unknown to them, which is already dried out in the dead metals, etc. We do indeed sometimes connect the already perfect Stone—which is multiplied in a spiritual way by means of our vinegar—with common gold for the red [work], and with common silver for the white [work], at the end of the work. This connection, although it is also called a fermentation by some, is nevertheless no true fermentation, but rather a making-suitable, which is properly called specification. Regarding this you can look up Isaac Hollandus in his Mineral Work original: "opere Min." book 1, chapter 136, which metallic