_B._ Have you never read, or else heard from others, that those most
ancient Philosophers, tell us that their universal Work, is not only
most easie to be done, but withal no ways Chargeable. For they do
openly Confess, that to the perfecting of their Work, a Man needs be at
no more Expences, than two _Florins_, and that the Labour it self, even
from the beginning to the end, is nothing else but mere Womens work,
and Boys play.
C. _You are pleased to offer me delicate Dainties, easie to be
prepared, for I have not so much Money as is to be laid out upon those
kind of chargeable and costly Labours: Neither will my Family Affairs
admit thereof, =viz.= to spend my days in such sumptuous and chargeable
Cookeries, and which are so full of most great Labours, and whose
event too is oftentimes very uncertain. For I have heard some say, that
the smallest Errour may destroy the whole Work, and quite spoil it, and
so grievously affect such as operate about such great Secrets, with a
very great loss of long time, and great Expences. And therefore such a
Work, as I can attend upon without letting my taking Care of my Family,
and which will need the disbursment of but a few Expences, will please
me better than those other Costly ones would._
_B._ I readily believe, that this very thing you desire, will not only
be exceedingly pleasing unto your self, but also unto many others
besides. The Expences are but very small, and the Labours thereupon
but little, so that each days Fire, which the Matter is to be set
upon, may be taken Care for, in half an hours space. But now, though
the Philosophers have made mention of very small Expences, and have
comprised them in the compass of a couple of _Florins_, yet is that
saying to be otherwise understood. Those Ancients made use of the
greatest _Florins_, _viz._ the _Rhenish_ ones, and also the _Hungarian_
Crowns, each of which is of the value of five of our _Florins_. And if
you thus understand it after this compute, I can easily shew unto you
the Truth of their Assertion.
C. _I do even think as you say: Sure we must not expect any [such]
things for nothing; I am content, [and therefore, pray] let us proceed._
_B._ If our Work be called the labour of Women, and Boys play, it is
expedient, that it be like unto Womens work, and Boys play: For else
the Philosophers would have used an unfit similitude. You well know,
what Labours your Wife is chiefly busied about, and what her daily
Labour is she imploys her self in.
C. _Yes, verily I daily see, that she doth boyl Food necessary for the
Use of the whole Family, and being boyl’d sets it upon the Table to be
eaten. This Labour she performs, at least twice every day, when Dinner
and Supper is ended, she doth wash the Dishes, Pots, Goblets, and other
Vessels, and cleans them, and makes them fit to put other new Food in,
and to be served out to the Table. Besides too, this is her Office and
Care, if haply a Pot be broken, or crackt, whereby it is made unfit
to hold moisture any more, to substitute (in defect of Iron Pots) a
new Pot made of Potters Clay, in the stead thereof: Such and the like
Labours, as these, are in our Country called the Womens work._
_B._ Well, be it so: I will likewise shew unto thee, such a Labour in
_Chymical_ Operations, as resembles this. Therefore, like as the Female
Sex do first wash the _Flesh_, _Fish_, _Rapes_, _Pot-herbs_, _Roots_,
_Apples_, _Pears_, or other things with pure Water, which they mean to
boyl, and then put them into the Pot, and pour thereunto as much Water
as is requisite, and place it over the Fire, and boyl it so long, till
all the crudity, or rawness being vanisht, the Meats become grateful to
the Palat, and pleasant, and easily digestible by the Stomach. [So do
we] They do likewise sometimes pour Wine upon Flesh and Fish, instead
of Water, and add as much Salt as is convenient, together with some
Spices, or odoriferous Herbs, by which they give the Fish and Flesh a
most excellent Taste. But yet we must not forget Salt, above all the
other Spices, or Seasonings, and odoriferous Herbs, for it Corrects
and maturates the Flesh, Fish, and other hard Meats, more than other
Spices. For we can well enough want these if they are not at hand,
but as for Salt, there is always need of that, about the boyling of
Flesh, Fish, and other Food. If therefore Flesh, or Fish are to be
boyld well, then Salt water is requisite; and as for all the other
Additions of Herbs, and odoriferous Spices, they only serve to give
it a good pleasant Taste, and make it acceptable to the Palat, and
to the Smelling. For the Flesh and Fish when boyl’d or stewed, do by
their Magnetick Virtue attract so much Salt and grateful Savour, and
Virtue, as they need: And that which remains, stays in the Water. Now
the curious Dames do shut the tops of their Pots very well with their
Covers, lest the efficacious Vapours should be forced away in fume
by the Boyling, and not stay with the Flesh or other Meats. But the
careless Housewifes do not much regard the covering of their Pots, from
whence it comes to pass, that they lose these good and sweet Spirits,
and then they fil up their Pots with new Water, by which doings, the
Flesh, or Fish, do not get so sweet a Savour, as they would have, if
that efficacious Water had been kept in and conserved. Some Women that
are yet more curious, and diligent about their Cookery, do put upon
their Pots, wherein they boyl their Meats, such a Cover as hath a
fold in it, by which the Collected sweet and odoriferous Vapours may
distil down into an under-put Vessel, which being thus gotten, they
keep by them, to refresh and cherish with them, such as are weak and
sick, when need requires. Others, to free themselves from this kind of
Labour, do add as much Water as need is, together with Salt and Spices,
to their Flesh, and so boyl it by little and little, shutting in the
Vapours with a Cover, which else would go away, and the Meat taste
of burning; And by doing thus, they are not necessitated to pour on
any new Water, though this slow boyling takes up more time than that,
which is done by a strong and uncessant Ebullition: I would have you
well to observe these things, for ’tis not without cause that I utter
them. And now let us examine the other similitude, and see what those
Boys Plays are, that so we may afterwards accommodate even them too, to
our Philosophical work. What therefore do you see concerning the Boys
Plays, with what things, and after what manner do they Play?
C. _How can I tell? They play as their Parents please to let them,
or as they can get opportunity of Playing: As for my self, I do not
grant my Children so much Liberty, to play when, and how they list
themselves. I send them to the School and to the Church, and sometimes
I allow them one hours Play for Recreations sake, nor do I allow them
any other Play but at Bowls, [or Knickers] by which they moderately
stir their Bodies, and exercise themselves, and Concoct their Meat, and
this is far more profitable for them, than if they were constrained to
sit always at home, without any exercise at all: Other play than this,
I allow them not. Cards and Dice are unfit Plays for Boys, they are
many times very hurtful to those of riper years, especially when by the
too much abuse of them, they do so unprofitably waste their precious
time, and cannot tell how to use a mean. I have indeed otherwise seen
Boys, that meeting with some Sand get [thereout of] bright Stones, and
play with them, but yet this is not usual. However, there is no play
more frequent amongst Children, than that of Bowls, [or Knickers] which
play they daily use, whatsoever time they can steal, to that purpose.
Yea both at their going to School, and returning from School, you may
see them presently busied about their Rubbers, or Knickers-play. They
are very hardly restrained therefrom. If they want Money to buy the
Bowls, or Knickers, they get a little piece of Potters Clay and moisten
it with Water, and make up their little Bowls, or Pellets in their
hands, and harden them in the Fire; which I remember, when I was a
Boy, I often did. And besides this Boys play, no other is known unto
me._
_B._ Very good, you have hit the nail on the head: And now let us
see, whether or no the ancient Philosophers have (after the manner of
Boys) played with small Bowls, or Knickers? and whether, or no, they
have boyl’d their work in Pots, with as easie a Labour, as Women do.
For of necessity they must have hit on doing after this wise, else
could they not have compared their work to the Labour of Women, and
play of Children. So then, if we are to imitate Women and Boys in our
Operation, what Matters are we to make use of, for our boyling, in the
stead of Flesh, Fish, and other Meats; and what Water is it, that is
to be poured thereupon. For if we are minded to do any good effect,
’tis expedient, that we likewise know, what those Matters are, which
admit of being boyled unto a Maturity in our fiery Water, and these
verily must be such, (seeing they are to be _maturated by boyling_)
as have a great Affinity with the said Water: Forasmuch therefore, as
our Water is of a _Metallick_ Nature, and yet all the Metals do in a
manner arise, or proceed (in the Earth) therefrom, and are even at this
very day advanced, by the very same (by the help of the Terrestrial
and Central fire) by little and little unto perfection: All that we
have to do is, to imitate the simplicity of Nature, which will never
seduce us, for so without question, those most ancient Philosophers
did do, who having borrowed their wonderful Work from Nature her self,
do advise us to do no more, but to follow Nature, and to begin there,
where Nature left off, and to ascend higher and to make that perfect,
which is as yet imperfect: God hath prefixed unto Nature her bounds,
which she cannot transgress [or go beyond:] But Art, doth much excel
Nature, and performs those things which Nature cannot accomplish: Yea
more, that which she can hardly do in the Earth in a thousand years
time, Art effects in one year, and this is easily confirmed by many
Testimonies. Now as to the Generation and Maturation of the Metals,
Nature useth a most simple or plain way, a very slow one, but yet safe.
From thence ariseth the Errour of many a Man, who do not follow Nature,
but the guidance of their own phantastick Brains, never effecting
ought of good, but remain always Novellists in the same, what Labours
soever they undertake, and what Expences soever they are at: Although
the ancient Philosophers do by their many Admonitions set afore us,
that most simple Course of Nature for us to imitate; and they have
especially hinted to us, that their Work is so simple, that should they
but openly and clearly have treated of the same, even the Women would
deride it and say, that the Male kind had learned their Art from them.
Yea, it is so very vile a Work, that no Body would be able to believe
it, and upon this Account, the Philosophers have done their utmost,
to hide and obscure the Art the most they could, least they should be
contemned by the proud deriders, (who Soaring aloft seek after things
too high for them,) and be accounted for Cheats and false Writers. And
this is the main and chiefest Reason, why this Art being so wrapt up in
darkness of a most profound Silence, lyes hitherto hid from the whole
Troop of Sophisters, and such deriding Fellows. _Sendivow_ (as we have
already several times hinted) doth expresly say, that he had oftentimes
declared the whole Art, to not a few word for word, unto whom, that
Art did nevertheless seem so very vile and mean, that they could not
at all believe any likelihood of Truth in his most true words, and
so left the Work unattempted. The same _Sendivow_ doth also say, That
had the most skilful _Hermes_, the most quick witted _Geber_, and most
illuminated _Lully_ been again alive, and beheld our Laboratories
stored with so many, and such various Instruments of Glass, Earth,
Iron, and other Matters, and such several Fornaces, they would be
ravished into a most high Admiration, like so many Boys, and would be
but as it were our Scholars, as concerning those Vessels and Fornaces,
all which however, we have learned from their Writings, but yet we are
destitute of that most excellent Work which was wrought by them in so
simple a Way, and it hitherto flies our subtile and acute Wits. And, my
dear Friend, he also tells us, that we should fly aloft into the lofty
Air with our Wings, for the Work is simple, vile and abject, the which,
you may sooner comprehend [or feel] with your hands, than apprehend by
the subtilty of your Wit or Cogitations.
C. _All these things may very sufficiently serve to rid us out of so
great a Labyrinth, but I pray, Sir, how comes it about, that we do
sottishly persuade our selves, that those things are so very difficult,
which notwithstanding are so very simple, vile, and abject._
_B._ It is indeed, to him that has knowledge of the same, an easie,
vile, and simple thing: But very difficult and intricate to him, that
laying aside the way of Nature, thinks himself able to learn so great
an Art out of Books, which (by their leave) though, seems a thing
almost impossible to be done. For the Philosophers have so prolixly,
intricately, and obscurely described the whole Mystery, that their so
prolix and dark Writings would sooner lead a Man from the true and
right way, so far off are they from reducing him thereinto.
C. _I my self find, that this is most certainly true, for I never
heard as yet of any Man, or read of any, that learned the Art out
of Books: But that almost all of them who were skilled in the same,
do Confess, that they became Masters of the same, either by Divine
Inspiration or Revelation, or by the help of some Friend. There’s no
Body can contradict those things which you have here induced, for the
Confirmation of your Opinion. And now, Sir, let us set upon the Work it
self, and diligently pray unto God and wait for his Blessing._
_B._ Content, hearken therefore attentively.