Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy - A Bardon Companion

And if any skillful minister of nature shall apply force to nature; and, by design, torture and vex it in
order to its annihilation, says the philosopher; it, on the contrary, being brought to this necessity,
changes and transforms itself into a strange variety of shapes and appearances; for nothing but the
power of the Creator can annihilate it or truly destroy; so that, at length, running through the whole
circle of transformations, and completing its period, it in some degree restores itself, if the force be
continued. And that method of torturing or detaining will prove the most effectual and expeditious
which makes use of manacles and fetters; i.e., lays hold and works upon matter in the extremist degree
(19).
So much does Lord Bacon assume upon the declaration of Democritus; our philosopher had in him the
bright light of genius, which enabled in him independently of experience to conceive well and grapple
with the possibility of nature. His mind glanced intuitively through and beyond the darkness which
time had cast before the Wisdom of antiquity, and he discerned her yet beaming afar off with
venerable splendor in her old domain. Though chained to the superficies, observing and collecting
facts, he honored those sages who long before him had experimented into the center, and proved there
a firm and immutable foundation of truth; but thither he was not himself able to pass, for he knew
nothing of their Great Art, or of its subject even, and naturally mistook their hidden ground. Had the
smallest glimpse only been revealed to him, he would have imagined all differently, or even proposed
that the dissolution of nature should be attempted mechanically, or by help of such “particular
digesters applied to the fire”, as in the Sylva Sylvarum he seriously designs for this end (20).
Such instruments do, in fact, expel the very nature which the ancients prized; leaving us without all
recompense in the dead ashes of her consuming vesture; whereas, the proposal of Democritus is not
only to reduce the matter, with her false forms, to the verge of annihilation, but to entrap the bare spirit
and help her on from thence to operate her own intrinsical freed will, which according to this
testimony she possesses, and is able to manifest, wrapping herself spontaneously about it, even to a
recreation. But if she is suffered to depart invisibly without pursuit or amendment, which is the
common catastrophe, then she is caught up by other external compellants, and becoming defiled, is
imprisoned by them and no better than she was before. The contrariation proposed by the proposed by
the alchemists, indeed, is not the power of ordinary art, any more than of nature herself; but she passes
through death from one form into another, as in the chemic vessels, without self-discovery, being
instigated by a most forcible excentric will, which she has no power but to obey: yet, as the passage
runs, --- If any skillful minister shall apply another force, and by design torture and vex the spirit in
order to its annihilation, it, being brought under this necessity, transforms and presently restores itself,
the force being continued.
And that magic, says Paracelsus, is the most singular secret that directed such an entrance into nature;
which, if it were divinely done by God alone, it would be to no purpose to study for it. But the Deity
doth not make himself especially operative herein: if that magic then were natural, certainly it was
most wonderful, very excellent for quickness of separation, the like whereof nature can neither give
nor express. For whilst that is at work, beyond all things fall apart into their elements, breaking forth
into their act and simple essence. The greatest miracle of all in philosophy is separation: separation
was the principle and beginning of all generation. And as it was in the great mystery, so it is in the
lesser. The truphat, or matter of the metals, brings everything into its due form (21). --- Convert the
elements, says Arnold, and you will find what you seek; for our operation is nothing else than a
mutation of natures, and the method of conversion in our Argent vive is the reduction of natures to
their first root (22). The elements of Mercury being separated, says Ripley, and again commixed by
equal weight or proportion, make the elixir complete (23).
Now as we are taught from the beginning, that the whole of the Hermetic theory and practice proceeds
upon the assumption of a certain Universal Being in nature, which is occult, and since the whole Art
therefore has respect to this, we may be careful to observe that in speaking of elements, our authors do
not allude to the common elements --- as of fire, air and water --- with which we are familiarly
conversant, or to those subtler gases, so called simples of modern Chemistry, all of which are impure