XIV

I ask, therefore, whether the Regulus the metallic heart or button found at the bottom of a crucible, or the metals and minerals, even if virginal and dug from the earth, are already specified by nature and should be considered "third matter" or not? These have already been totally excluded above by Sendivogius. And the same Sendivogius Michael Sendivogius, a famous 16th-century alchemist, quoting from Hermes Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary founder of alchemy in the place cited above, adds: "that this alkaline salt falls from the belly of the wind, out of the air onto the earth, and is congealed together with our magnesia original: "sal hoc alcalicum ex ventre venti ex aëre in terram una cum magnesia nostra congelatum decidat"." He thus calls it a congealed air or spirit that is better than the whole earth, and concludes that it is our dew. Therefore?

For this reason, I ask you to look at the sixth treatise of the same Sendivogius, inserted in his New Light of Alchemy original: "Novum Lumen Chymicum". There you will see most clearly, categorically, and evidently proven, that all the works of those who labor in minerals and metallic bodies are vain, useless, and of no value. For he says: "They take bodies in place of seed, not knowing that bodies are not generated from bodies, but are only sired by sperm, and by a living sperm original: "spermate vivo", which all metals, minerals, and specified third matter lack, being dead." These are dry matters, entirely lacking the universal living spirit we seek. Without this living spirit, all authors absolutely testify that nothing can be achieved in this art. Thus, not only do they labor in vain without this unique universal spirit, but they also begin the work most insanely from the heel or the tail, contrary to the intention of nature and all the wise. But as for what the bodies and minerals of the wise truly are, one should look to Laurentius Ventura a 16th-century Venetian alchemist in chapter 25, or Paracelsus the famous physician and occultist in his previously cited Collection of Chemistry original: "Congeriis chymiae".