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consideration the gentle access and recess of the Sun,
whose Light and Lamp bestows its heat to the things of
the world, according to the times and Laws of the
Universe, and so bestows a certain temperament upon
them.
104. The first degree of the Bath of Heat is called the heat
of a Fever; the second, of Dung. The first degree of the
second grade is the simple heat of Ashes; the second is
the heat of Sand. Now the degrees of Fire, Coals and
Flame want a proper Name, but they are distinguished by
the operation of the intellect, according to their intensity.
105. Three Grades only of Fire are sometimes found
amongst Philosophers, viz., the Water Bath, of Ashes and
of Flame: which latter comprehend the Fire of Coals and
of Flame: the Heat of Dung is sometimes distinguished
from the Heat of the Bath in degree. Thus for the most part
Authors do involve the light in darkness, by the various
expressions of the Philosophers' Fire; for the knowledge
thereof is accounted amongst their chief secrets.
106. In the White Work, because three Elements only are
extracted, Three degrees of Fire do suffice; the last, to wit
the "Optetic," is reserved for the Fourth Element, which
finishes the Red Work. By the first degree the eclipse of
Sol and Luna is made; by the second the light of Luna
begins to be restored; by the third Luna attains unto the
fullness of her splendor; and by the fourth Sol is exalted
into the highest apex of his glory. Now in every part the
Fire is administered according to the rules of Geometry; so
that the Agent may answer to the disposition of the
Patient, so their strength be equally poised betwixt
themselves.
107. Philosophers have very much insisted upon secrecy
in regard to their Fire; they scarce have been bold to
describe it but show it rather by a description of its
qualities and properties, than by its name: as that it is
called Airy Fire, Vaporous, Humid and Dry, Clear or Star-
like; because it may easily by degrees be increased or
remitted as the Artificer pleases. He that desires more of
the knowledge of Fire may be satisfied by the Works of
Lullius, who hath opened the Secrets of Practice to worthy
minds candidly.
108. Of the conflict of the Eagle and the Lion also they
write diversely, because the Lion is the strongest animal,
and therefore it is necessary that more Eagles act together
(three at least, or more, even to ten) to conquer him: the
fewer they are, the greater the contention, and the slower
the Victory; but the more Eagles, the shorter the Battle,
and the plundering of the Lion will more readily follow. The
happier number of seven Eagles may be taken out of
Lullius, or of nine out of Senior.
109. The Vessel wherein Philosophers decoct their work is
twofold; the one of Nature, the other of Art; the Vessel of
Nature which is also called the Vessel of Philosophy is the
Earth of the Stone, or the Female or Matrix, where into the
sperm of the Male is received putrefies, and is prepared
for generation; the Vessel of Nature is of three sorts, for
the secret is decocted in a threefold Vessel.
110. The First Vessel is made of a transparent Stone, or of
a stony Glass, the form thereof some Philosophers have
hid by a certain Enigmatic description; sometimes
affirming that it is compounded of two pieces, to wit, an
Alembic and a Bolt-head; sometimes of three at other
times of the two former with the addition of a Cover.
111. Many have feigned the multiply of such like Vessels
to be necessary to the Philosophical Work, calling them by
divers names with a desire of hiding the secret by a
diversity of operations; for they called it Dissolvent of
solutions; Putrefactory for putrefaction; Distillatory for
distillation; Sublimatory for sublimation; Calcinatory for
calcination &c.
112. But all deceit being removed we may speak
sincerely, one only Vessel of Art suffices to terminate the
Work of either Sulphur; and another for the Work of the
Elixir; for the diversity of digestions requires not the
change of Vessels; yea we must have a care lest the
Vessel be changed or opened before the First work be
ended.
113. You shall choose a form of glass Vessel round in the
bottom (or cucurbit), or at least oval, the neck a hand's
breadth long or more, large enough with a straight mouth
made like a Pitcher or Jug, continuous and unbroken and
equally thick in every part, that it may resist a long, and
sometimes an acute Fire The cucurbit is called a Blind-
head because its eye is blinded with the Hermetic seal,
lest anything from without should enter in, or the Spirit
steal out.
114. The second Vessel of Art may be of Wood, of the
trunk of an Oak, cut into two hollow Hemispheres, wherein
the Philosophers' Egg may be cherished till it is hatched of
which see the Fountain of Trevisan.
115. The third Vessel Practitioners have called their
Furnace, which keeps the other Vessels with the matter
and the whole work: this also Philosophers have
endeavored to hide amongst their secrets.
116. The Furnace which is the Keeper of Secrets, is called
Athanor, from the immortal Fire, which it always
preserves; for although it afford unto the Work continual
Fire, yet sometimes unequally, which reason requires to
be administered more or less according to the quantity of
matter, and the capacity of the Furnace.
117. The matter of the Furnace is made of Brick, or of
daubed Earth, or of Potter's clay well beaten and prepared
with horse dung, mixed with hair, so that it may cohere the
firmer, and may not be cracked by long heating; let the
walls be three or four fingers thick, to the end that the
furnace may be the better able to keep in the heat and
withstand it.
118. Let the form of the Furnace be round, the inward
altitude of two feet or thereabouts, in the midst whereof an
Iron or Brazen plate must be set, of a round Figure, about
the thickness of a Penknife's back, in a manner
possessing the interior latitude of the Furnace, but a little
narrower than it, lest it touch the walls; it must lean upon
three or four props of Iron fixed to the walls, and let it be
full of holes, that the heat may be the more easily carried
upwards by them, and between the sides of the Furnace
and the Plate. Below the Plate let there be a little door left,
and another above in the walls of the Furnace, that by the
Lower the Fire may be put in, and by the higher the
temperament of the heat may be sensibly perceived; at
the opposite part whereof let there be a little window of the
Figure of a Rhomboid fortified with glass, that the light
over against it may show the colours to the eye. Upon the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]