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Therefore follow my advice, and be careful in both these particulars, andthen let your External heat be so that your Compound may boyl andsublime, which for its similitude is called a Balneum, so long till theVapours Cease, and are retained within; then will the Compound rot, whichfor its great likeness is called our Dunghill.Until the time that Nights be passed ninety,In moist heat keep them for any thing,Soon after by blackness thou shalt espy,That they draw fast to putrefying.First then, our Operations begin in humido, for in the beginning moisture itprevails, and is called the Phlegmatick Constitution of our Embrio; and thisis called the Reign of the Woman, which (according to Flammel) seeks toget the Domination for many months, that is to say, for three month orthereabouts, which according to our Author is ninety days and nights, towhom many other Authors agree. This time may be longer or shorter,according to the better or worse preparation of the Matter, and the Regimenof the Fire.But when thou hast set thy Glass once, in the first place be sure that thougive a due, yet temperate heat; govern it so as that between the Watersabove, and the Flouds beneath, the Earth may liquefie; then continue yourdecoction, and the Vessel shall be beclouded, and thy Compound shall withconstant Circulation become black.This colour shall be a sign unto you that you have not run your course invain; this is the first Gate, into which and through which you must enter;now know for certain that thy Seeds begin to rot and engender. In thisPutrefaction there is life, for this Operation is nothing else but an extractingof Natures from their profundity or root; this is that which will make thyfixt Body to become a volatile Spirit, for Putrefaction doth loose the bandsof all the Elements.Which after many colours, thou mayst bringTo perfect whiteness, by patience easily,And so the Seed in his nature shall multiply.So soon then as thou shalt have blackness, know for certain that in thisblackness whiteness is really hidden, so really as a living Plant in its Seed.But before thou attain to this whiteness, thou mayst have patience and passthrough many middle changing colours, which will be no small cheating tothe Work-man, who must wait with a great deal of Longanimity until theEarth and Heaven be united.156