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subliming of Lead, hoping after it was exquisitely sublimed, to have out ofit that Menstruum which should effect the Stone, without any further layingon of hands. This when I had seen, I returned to my Furnace, and recruitedmy Fire as I was directed, and made a particular relation of what I had seen,and desired the verdict of Nature upon them all. She told me, that theycould never by this way expect any thing but loss. I asked here if theymight not with trying many things, a length hit the right. She told me, No,they had not any ground of truth, nor could they expect either the greatsecret, or any other particular profitable truth, in that way. Then said I,Noble Lady, pray let me know the reason of their error, that I may knowhow to avoid the like.For by such Calcination their bodies be spent,Which minisheth the moisture of our Stone;Therefore when bodies to powder are brent,Dry as ashes of Tree or Bone,Of such Calxes then will we none:For moisture we multiply radical,In Calcining minishing none at all.Then said she, besides that they work not on the true Matter, they work notin the right way, which are two most desparate errors; for our work is tomake a substance fluid, penetrating and entering, that may have ingress intoimperfect Metals: for which cause we do preserve humidity, without whichour Stone cannot be penetrative. So then instead of purifying the crude, andripening what is raw by these Calcinations, the tender Soul is put to flight,and the crudities are more strongly vitrified, so that all hope of fruit iswholly by this means taken away: for take this for a rule, whatever eitherby violence of Fire, or Corrosives, is turned into a dry Powder or Calx, it iswholly reprobate in our work: for though we Calcine, yet it is in such a Firein which our moisture is not burnt, and in such a Vessel so closed that theSpirits are retained, and in a word so sweet is our Regimen in reference toour Matter, that moisture is advanced, and is made more unctuous, and byconsequent more ingressive.And for a sure ground of our true Calcination,Work wittily only kind with kind,For kind unto kind hath appetitive inclination.But all this is not enough to declare our Calcination, for Operation followsPreparation, and he that doth not before he begin to work, prepare hisMatters, and set true Agent and patient together, it is not his Regimen thatcan or will produce anything. Therefore first you must know, that we joynkind with kind in our work, for Nature is mended and retained with its own75