XVI

"vegetable, and mineral, although there is only one Stone, and we said this because this composite consists of these three, and so forth." On this point, see Paracelsus in his aforementioned Collection of Chemistry, chapter 7, where he says in open words: "The ignorant, believing the Stone to be triple and secret in a triple genus, such as vegetable, animal, and mineral, assert this as fate Note well, so that they even sought it in minerals. This opinion of theirs is far removed from the opinion of all the Philosophers. For the wise assert that their Stone is uniformly vegetable, animal, and mineral." And he further adds: "Certain others, having tried to fix mercury with the sulfurs of minerals and metals, were greatly deceived." And at the end of chapter 7, he concludes Note well: "Some zealots of this art have sought this, and their ferments in various primary and intermediate minerals, but they found that they ran in vain, since it is the same substance in the whole work which is sought, from which all things are made, and so forth," as Geber adds, and so forth. From this, therefore, you clearly see that whatever primary and intermediate minerals or metals are condemned in this work. If you read all the authors everywhere with a diligent mind, you will find similar things.

Ripley George Ripley, a 15th-century English alchemist then subjoins at the end of his Marrow original: "Medulla": "The Elixir is triple, namely vegetable, animal, and mineral, because our water is from animal and vegetable things, and from our mineral, and so forth." Concerning which water, he adds in his book Earth of Earth original: "Terra terrae": "mention is made in many places in Holy Scripture, and it is read"