Friendly Reader, I
 wrote the Twelve foregoing Treatises in love to the sonnes of Art, that before they set their hand to the worke they may know the operation of Nature, viz. how she produceth things by her working; lest they should attempt to enter in at the gate without keyes, or to draw water in a sieve: for he laboureth in vain, that putteth forth his hands to labour without the knowledge of Nature, in this sacred and most true Art, he lies in nocturnal darknesse to whom the sun doth not shine, and he is in thick darknesse, to whom after it is night the Moon doth not appeare. Nature hath her proper light, which is not obvious to our eyes; the shadow of Nature is a body before our eyes: but if the light of Nature doth enlighten any one, presently the cloud is taken away from before his eyes, and without any let he can behold the point of our loadstone, answering to each Center of the beams, viz. of the Sun and Earth: for so far[Pg 40]re doth the light of Nature penetrate, and discovers inward things; of which thing take this for an example. Let a boy that is twelve yeares old, and a girle of the same age, be cloathed with garments of the same fashion, and be set one by the other, no body can know which is the male, or which is the female; our eyes cannot penetrate so far, therefore our sight deceiveth us, and takes false things for true: But when their garments are taken off, and they are naked, that so it may appear what Nature made them, they are easily distinguished by their sexes. Just after the same manner doth our intellect make a shadow of the shadow of Nature; for the naked body of Man is the shadow of the seed of Nature: As therefore mans body is covered with a garment, so also mans nature is covered with the body, which God reserves to himself to cover, or uncover. I could here discourse largely, and Philosophically of the dignity of Man, his Creation and Generation: but seeing they are impertinent to this place, I will passe them over in silence; only I will treat a little concerning the Life of Man. Man was created of the Earth, and lives by vertue of the Aire; for there is in the Aire a secret food of life, which in the night wee call dew; and in the day rarified water, whose invisible, congealed spirit is better then the whole Earth. O holy, and wonderfull Nature, who dost not suffer the sons of Wisdome to erre, as thou dost manifest in the life of man daily! Moreover in these twelve Treatises I have produced so many naturall reasons, that he which is desirous of the art, and feares God, may the more easily understand all things, which through Gods blessing, with my[Pg 41] eyes I have seen, with mine own hands have made without any deceit of sophistication: for without the light, and knowledge of Nature, it is impossible to attain to this Art, unlesse it come to any by Gods speciall revelation, or some speciall friend doth privately shew it. It is a thing of little account, yet most pretious, which being divers times described, I doe now again repeat. Take 10 parts of aire, 1 part of living gold, or living silver; put all these into thy vessel; boyle this aire first untill it be water, and then no water. If thou art ignorant of this, and knowst not how to boyl aire, without all doubt thou shalt erre; seeing this is the matter of the ancient Philosophers. For thou must take that, which is, and is not seen, untill it be the Artificers pleasure; it is the water of our dew, out of which is extracted the Salt Petre of Philosophers, by which all things grow, and are nourished: the matrix of it is the Center of the Sun, and Moon, both celestiall, and terrestiall: and to speak more plainly, it is our Loadstone, which in the foregoing Treatises I called Chalybs, or Steel: The Aire generates this Loadstone, and the Loadstone generates, or makes our Air to appear, and come forth. I have here entirely shewed thee the truth; Begge of God that hee would prosper thine undertakings: And so in this place thou shalt have the true, and right explication of Hermes, when he saith, that the father of it is the Sun, and its mother the Moon, and that which the wind carryed in its belly, viz. Sal Alkali, which the Philosophers have called Sal Armoniacum, and vegetable, hid in the belly of the Magnesia. The operation of it is this, to dissolve the congealed aire, in which thou shall dissolve[Pg 42] the tenth part of Gold; seale this up, and work with our fire, untill the air be turned into powders; and there appear (the salt of the world being first had) divers colours. I would have set down the whole processe in these Treatises; but because that, together with the multiplication, is sufficiently set down in the books of Lullius, and other old Philosophers; it therefore sufficed me to treat only of the first, and second matter; which is done faithfully, neither do thou ever think that any man living hath done it more cleerly, then I have done it; since I have done it not out of many books but by the labour of my hands, and mine own experience. If therefore thou dost not understand, or beleeve the truth, doe not blame me, but thy self; and perswade thy selfe that God was unwilling to reveal this secret to thee: Be therefore earnest with him by prayer, and with serious meditation read over this book oftentimes, especially the Epilogue of these twelve Treatises: alwaies considering the possibility of Nature, and the actions of the Elements, and which of them is the chiefest in those actions, and especially in the rarefaction of water, or aire, for so the heavens are created, as also the whole world. This I was willing to signifie to thee, as a father to his son. Doe not wonder that I have wrote so many Treatises, for I did not make them for my own sak............