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incombustible, yet so as that the Mercuriality retains some of its qualities ina very noble remarkable way, furnishing the Compound with a fusibleunctuosity, when at the same time the Sulphur retains that flexibility with amost noble incombustibility.So then take this for the Touch-stone of all thy Alchymical endeavors, ifever thou intend any thing commendable in our Art; see that thy Medicinebe of an easie fusion, so that when it is cast on a plate of Metal heated, itmay enter it, and flow in it like Wax or melted Pitch; yea let the flux be soeasie, that it may flow upon Mercury, and enter it before its flight,otherwise brag not of thy skill, for thou art yet in a way of Sophistry, out ofwhich thou shalt never escape, without a more then ordinary providence ofGod.If thou therefore list to do weel,Sit the Medicine shall never else flow kindly,Neither congeal without thou first it putrefie,First purge, then fix the Elements of our Stone,Till they together congeal and flow anon.That thou therefore mayst be sure of thy Work, and not repent thy cost andpains, as many do when it is too late, take my counsel, and know that thyMedicine never can nor shall flow as it ought, except thy Solution bePhilosophical.Know then that our Solution is not an ordinary vulgar dissolving of Bodies,either by Corrosives, or any other way; but our true dissolving is nothingelse then putrefying, that is, a destroying of the Compaction wholly with apreservation of the Species. This Operation be sure to make before thoudream of Congelation, for then thy Spirits will naturally fix and flowtogether, congealing and relenting so long until they come to a perfectPowder impalpable, which then hath ingress into all Metals, penetratingtheir very profundity, and altering them radically.For when the matter is made perfectly white,Then, &c.But of such time thou mayst have long respite,Ere it congeal, &c.And after into grains red as bloud,Richer, &c.So then our Congelation is nothing else but the whitening of the Bodies, ofwhich the Philosopher speaketh, when he saith, Whiten thy Body, and burnthy Books, lest our hearts be broken.176