_Of the Process of preparing the =Tincture of Natural Things=,
abbreviated by =Paracelsus=._
Ancient _Spagyrists_ would not have undergone so prolix a Labour, and
made such tedious Reiterations, if they had learned their Work from
my School, and in their labour followed the Rules of the same, but
would full as well have obtained their end with much less Labour and
Charge. At this time, in which _Theophrastus Paracelsus_, the Monarch
of Secrets, comes, is the Season of Invention, which was hid from all
Spagyrists before me. Wherefore I only say; Take the Blood of a Rosie
colour from the Lyon, and the Gluten from the Eagle, which, after you
have joined them together, coagulate according to the old Process. Thus
you will have the Tincture of Philosophers, which infinite men have
sought, but very few found.
Whether thou wilt or no, Sophister, this Magistery is in Nature, and
is a wondrous Work of GOD above Nature, and the most precious Treasure
in this Vale of Miseries. If you consider it externally, it appears
to be that which transmutes some vile thing into another much more
noble than it was before. Yet that Miracle is produced by a Spagyrist,
because he had patience, and was not weary, and by the Art of his
Preparation did corrupt the vile extrinsecal Body, and from thence
raised up another and most precious Essence. If thou hast learned, or
knowest any like thing by the light of _Aristotle_, or from the Rules
of _Serapio_, produce it here, and bring it to light by experience.
Now keep the Law of the Schools, as becomes a Lover of Honour, and a
Doctor. But if thou knowest nothing, or art able to do nothing, Why
dost thou contemn me, as an irrational _Helvetian_ Calf, and accuse
me to be a Vagabond Circulator? Art is another Nature, and a peculiar
World, as Experience witnesseth and demonstrates against thee and thy
Idols. Therefore the Alchymist sometimes compounds certain Simples,
which he afterwards, according to his necessity, corrupts, and thence
prepares another thing. For so, very often of many, one thing is at
length made, which effects more than Nature per se is able to do; as is
sufficiently manifest in _Gastaynum_, where of _Saturn Venus_ is made;
in _Carynthia_, of _Venus Luna_, and in _Hungary_, of _Luna Sol_. Not
to mention other Transmutations of Natural things (sufficiently known
to Magicians) which bring greater wonders to Light than _Ovid_ speaks
of in his _Metamorphosis_.
But that you may rightly understand me, seek your Lion in the _Orient_,
and your Eagle toward the _South_, which are to be assumed for this
Work. You cannot find better Instruments than _Hungary_ and _Histria_
produce. But if you would deduce that from Unity, through Duality into
Trinity, with an equal permutation of either, then you must direct your
Journey towards the _South_, for in _Cyprus_ thou canst not obtain all
thou desirest; yet here we must discourse no farther than at present we
have declared. Of these _Arcanums_, which exhibit transmutations, there
are many more, although known by few; and should they by the Lord GOD
be manifested to any one, the rumour of this Art would not therefore
presently break forth, but the Omnipotent, together with it, would give
understanding to conceal these; and other things, until the Coming of
_Elias the Artist_, in which time nothing shall be so hid, as not to
be revealed. You very clearly see (although there is no need to speak
of this here, which may by some be taken in derision) in the fire of
Sulphur, is a great Tincture of _Gemms_, which indeed exalts them more
sublimely than Nature _per se_ is able to do. But this Gradation of
Metals and Gemms must in this place be omitted by me, because I have
very sufficiently writ thereof in my _Secrets of Secrets_, in _The
Book, of Vexations of Alchymists_, and in other places. As I have begun
our Ancestors Process of the _Tincture of Natural Things_, So I will
perfectly conclude the same.