<strong>The</strong> <strong>Great</strong> <strong>Art</strong> page 68minerals such as salts, alums, copperas, attraments 49 , vitriols, borax and magnesia, and any stones andwaters whatever; I believe, I say, that this has cost them nothing: or that they have taken no trouble:or that they are too cruel, 50 . . . for know that no book declares in true words, unless by parables, assigns. But Man must think and revise often the possible meaning of what they say, and must regardthe operations by which Nature conducts her works.“Wherefore I conclude, and believe me: Leave sophistications and all those who believe in them:Flee from their sublimations, conjunctions, separations, congelations, preparations, disjunctions,connections and other deceptions . . . . And let those keep silent, who affirm a tincture other thanours, which is not true and brings no profit. And let those keep silent who speak of a sulphur differentfrom ours, which is concealed in Magnesia, (Philosophical); and who wish to derive quicksilverexcept from the Red Servant; and other water than ours, which is permanent, which unites only to itsproper nature, and moistens nothing save that which is one with its own nature.“Abandon alums, vitriols, salts and all attraments, borax, all strong waters, animals, beasts and allthat which may be derived from them; hair, blood, urine, sperms, flesh, eggs, stones and all minerals.Leave all metals alone: although they constitute the entrance of the work, according to the sayings ofthe Philosophers. Our Matter must be <strong>com</strong>posed of argent vive; and argent vive is found especially inmetals, according to Geber, according to the Grand Rosary, according to the Code of all Truth,according to Morianus, Haly, Calib, Avicenna, Bendegid, Esid, Serapion; according to Sarne, whowrote the book called Lilium, according to Euclides, in his seventh chapter of Retractations, andaccording to the Philosopher (Aristotle) in the third of Meteors . . . . And for this, say Aristotle andDemocritus, in the Book of Physics, chap. III of Meteors, let alchemists rejoice; for they will neversucceed in ripening the form of the metals, until they have reduce them to their first Matter...or know,as says in Turba Noscus, who was king of Albania, that from man <strong>com</strong>es only men; from birds onlybirds, and from beast only beasts, and that Nature perfects herself only in her own species.”(Philosophie des Métaux).That which we have just quoted from these two authors is a lesson for Souffleurs. It indicates tothem clearly that they are not on the right road; and can serve at the same time as a hindrance to thosewho would desire to deceive, because whenever a man will promise to make the Stone with thematters above excluded, one may conclude that he is either ignorant or a rogue. It is clear also by allthis reasoning of Trévisan that the Matter of the <strong>Great</strong> Work must be of a mineral and metallic nature;but what this Matter is in particular, no one has said exactly.49 Vitriols.50 In hiding their secret.
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