E very searcher of this Art must in the first place with a mature judgement examine the creation, operation, and vertues of the four Elements together with their actings: for if hee be ignorant of the originall, and Nature of these, hee shall not come to the knowledge of the Principles, neither shall hee know the true matter of the Stone, much lesse attain to any good conclusion; because every end is terminated upon its beginning. Hee that well knowes what hee begins, shall well know what shall bee the end. For the originall of the Elements is the Chaos, out of which God the Maker of all things created, and separated the Elements, which belongs to God alone: but out of the Elements Nature produceth the Principles of things, and this is Natures worke, through the will[Pg 144] of God alone: Out of the Principles Nature afterwards produceth Mineralls, and all things: out of which the Artist also by imitating Nature can doe many wonderfull things. Because Nature out of these Principles, which are Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, doth produce Mineralls, and Metalls, and all kinds of things; and it doth not simply produce Metalls out of the Elements, but by Principles, which are the medium betwixt the Elements, and Metalls: Therefore if Nature doth not make those things, much lesse shall Art. And not only in this example, but also in every naturall processe a middle disposition is to bee observed. Wherefore here in this Treatise wee have sufficiently described the Elements, their actings, and operations, as also the originall of the Principles (because hitherto no Philosopher hath discovered things more cleerly) that the well minded searcher might the more easily consider in what degree the Stone differs from Metalls, and Metalls from Elements. For there is a difference betwixt Gold, and Water, but lesse betwixt Water, and Mercury; and least of all betwixt Mercury, and Gold. For the house of Gold is Mercury, and the house of Mercury is Water: but Sulphur is that which coagulates Mercury; which Sulphur indeed is most difficultly prepared, but more difficultly found out. For in the Sulphur of Philosophers this secret consists, which also is contained in the inward rooms of Mercury, of whose preparation, without which it is unprofitable, wee shall discourse hereafter in the third Principle of Salt, seeing here wee treat of the vertue, and originall, not Praxis, of Sulphur.
[Pg 145]
Wherefore now wee have not writ this Treatise that wee would disprove any of the ancient Philosophers, but rather confirm their Writings, and supply those things, which they have omitted: seeing that Philosophers themselves were but men, they could not be accurate in all things, neither is one man sufficient for all things. Miracles also have seduced some men from the right way of Nature, as wee read happened in Albertus Magnus a most witty Philosopher; who writ, that in his times there were grains of Gold found betwixt the teeth of a dead man in his grave. Hee could not find out this Miracle, but judged it to be by reason of the Minerall vertue in man being confirmed in his opinion by that saying of Morien: And this Matter, O King, is extracted from thee: but this is erroneous, for Morien was pleased to understand those things Philosophically. For the Minerall vertue is placed in its own Kingdome, as the Animall is in its Kingdome, as in the book of the Twelve Treatises wee have distingui............