The Instructed Beginner in Chemistry: A Hermetic Epistle

even though it does not stink after its dissolution. But the dissolving menstruum has a good scent. Furthermore, they sometimes say that the matter is sweet, sometimes bitter, sometimes that 3 pounds are enough for the work, sometimes that 1,000 pounds are not sufficient, etc. Thus, the Sages are called contradictors by the inexperienced because they understand nothing of this science. For the distant matter is certainly sweet, but the proximate matter, namely the salt, is bitter. Of the distant matter, barely 1,000 pounds are sufficient, but of the proximate matter, namely the salt, 3 pounds are perfectly enough. Therefore, Sendivogius says in Epistle 50: a mercurial substance must be chosen, along with the universal spirit, in which state it can be found nowhere except in our single subject raw material. Once it has been separated from this, it is very bitter (and this is the salt). But when it is from the distant subject of the other matter, namely from which the universal spirit and the bitter salt are extracted,

the same is sweet, etc. Also Lullius in the first book of his Newest Testament original: "test. novissimi", where he described almost all the names given to our salt, says among other things: that it is a frozen air and a bitter alkaline salt. In this way, he agrees with Sendivogius in his aforementioned epilogue. But this same Lullius in chapter 26 of the second book, at the end of the chapter, says: that the stone is sweet, meaning from the first mixture. And thus the disputes are reconciled. Regarding all these apparent contradictions and how they are to be reconciled, see Epistles 50 and 54, and the last one of Sendivogius. And there, note diligently what Sendivogius reports about our universal heavenly spirit. Also look in his New Light, treatise 3, from the beginning, etc.

Elsewhere, the Sages add that from that same single sweet subject (which is called the other or distant matter, or Chaos, with which and through which everything in this art happens) from it, with it, in it, and through it, everything necessary for our work is obtained, as Geber and Senior Senior Zadith, a 10th-century Arabic alchemist say.