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Do this with heat easie and nourishing,First with moist Fire, and after that with dry,The Flegm with patience out-drawing,And after that the other Natures wittily:Dry up thine Earth until it be thirsty,By Calcination, else labourest thou in vain,And then make it drink up the moisture again.This is a heat which is friendly to the Bodies, for it causeth the Spirit toascend, and yet suffers it to return, and by reason of its ascending andreturning, the Matter below stands continually moist, and boileth with aperpetual motion and exhalation, which ascends and returns day and nightevery hour and minute without intermission.This moist Air, or liquid form at bottom, with Ebullition and sending fortha spiritual smoak or Vapour, (in which, saith Artephius, the whole Masteryconsists) continues for six weeks, or thereabouts, and then the boiling willturn to a Pitchy swelling, and putting up like Leavened Dough; and fromthat time the Compound shall grow dryer and dryer, coming at length toPitch-black Atoms, or Powder impalpable, and the fumes shall cease for sixweeks.Be patient therefore in decoction, and wait with a great deal of confidence,until thou seest thy Water, which at first ascends white and flegmatick, tobegin to change colour, and the Exhalations to arise discoloured within theGlass. Then continue your decoction till the Cloud which is conceived bebrought forth: for in this Operation be sure that the Seeds begin to mingle,and will give you a sign of the beginning of the Conjunction of Natures,and that is the gilding of the Glass about the sides within the Concave, as ifit were overspread with leaves of pure Gold.Continue still your decoction till the Earth at the bottom begin to appear,and the moisture of the Compound begin to be terminated in Dryness, incolour Black, which is a sure sign of your right progress, and withoutwhich you can never attain the Mastery.Remember that in this Calcination thou hast a portion of Water in the upperpart of thy Vessel, which did not descend; and in time of the ceasing of thefumes, the Body grows very dry, even to Calcination, which when it isintirely perfected, the Water is as it were by a Magnetical virtue drawndown, and then follows a second Liquefaction.Separation thus must thou oftentimes make,Thy Waters dividing into parts two,So that the Subtle from the gross thou take,113