You say well, and have rightly
judged of the Natural Destruction
of things, and if it shall be pleasing
to the most merciful God, to
deal graciously with you as He
hath done with me; He, according
to your good hope, will direct
some one of the Adept to demonstrate,
to you the way of destroying
Metals, and of collecting the
Internal Souls of them. But, in
the mean while, do you invoke
the most Wise God, to whose
Vigilant Eyes I commend you,
which are always open upon
his Sons, regenerated to him
by Christ. Again Farewel, and
rest assured, I will be your Friend.
I must at this time go hence,
but I hope to see you again in
good health, ere it be long.
Thus my new Friend took
his Leave, and went away; it leaving
me, his Friend, most sad
for the space of three Weeks,
which being expired, according
to his Word, he returned, and
gave me the Tincture, as you may
learn by the above-recited History.
After this, that Philosophick
Man of God went from me, and
I never more saw him, from
that time, unto to this very day,
nor could I hear of him by any
of the Carriers, or Posts, or by
any of my Intimate Acquaintance.
Nevertheless, he left with me
(as a Spurre) the acute Memory
of, him, reposted in my
minde, as also the Opinion of
Paracelsus affirming, that by Metals,
of Metals, and with Metals,
cleansed, Spiritual, and first depurated
from their feculency, are
made Metals, and the Living
Gold and Silver of Philosophers,
as well for Humane, as for Metallick
Bodies. Wherefore if
that Guest, my Friend of but
little acquaintance, had exactly
shewed to me, the way of preparing
preparing this Celestial Spiritual Salt,
by which, and with which,
from Corporeal, and Earthly Substances,
I might, as it were, in the
Matrix of them, collect the Spiritual
Rayes of Sol or Luna:
assuredly, He from his own Light,
would have enkindled in me so
great a Light, as I should have
seen, and understood how I ought
in other Corporeal Metals, by
Sympathy to transmute the Eternal
Soul of them so, as by the
help thereof they had clarified,
or transformed their own like body,
either into Gold, or into
Silver, according to the disposition
of the Red seed, into a Red
Body, or according to the Nature
of the White Seed, into a White
Body. For Elias the Artist affirmed
to me, that the Chalybs
Of Sandivogius is that true Mercurial
Metallick Humidity, by
the help of which, without any
Corrosive, the Artist might, in an
open Fire, and Crucible, separate
the fixed Rayes of Sol
or Luna from their own Body, and
thenceforth make them Volatile
and Mercurial, for the Dry Philosophick
Tincture, as he demonstrated
to me; and communicated
somewhat relating to the
transmutation of Metals. Indeed all
men well skilled in the Chymical
Science, have a necessity of assenting
to me in this, viz. that Pyrotechny
is the Mother, and Nurse
of various noble Sciences and Arts.
For they can easily judge from
the Colours of the Chaos of Metals
in the Fire, what Metallic
body is therein. Even so dayly
in the bowels of the Earth are
procreated Metals, and Perspicuous
Stones, from a proper noble
vaporous Seed, from a Spiritual
tinging Sulphureous Seed,
in their diverse Saline Matrixes.
For the common Sulphur, whether
of an impure, or pure Metal
whilst conjoyned with its own
body, mixt with Salt Peter only in
the burning heat of Fire is easily
changed into a most hard
and most fixed Earth, but this
Earth is thenceforth by the Aire
easily changed into a most limpid
Water: and this Water afterward,
by a more strong Fire,
according to the Nature of the
Metallick pure or impure Sulphur
mixt is converted into Glass,
admirably Well tinged with various
Colours. Almost in the very
same manner, from the White of
an Egge is generated a Chick by
natural heat. So also from the
Seminal bond of Life of any one
Metal, is made a new, and more
noble Metal, by an heat of Fire
convenient to the Saline Nature;
although very few Chimists rightly
and perfectly know, how the
Internal, and alwayes moving
Magnetick virtues, are distinguished
according to the Harmony,
or Disconsonancy of them.
Whence we see, this Metal hath
a Sympathy or Antipathy with
another, so very singular, as is
found in the Magnet with Iron, in
Mercury with Gold, in Silver with
Copper, a very remarkable Sympathy,
but on the contrary, there
is a notable Antipathy in Lead
against Tin, in Iron against Gold,
in Antimony against Silver, in
Lead against Mercury. Infinite
other like Sympathetic, and Antipathetick
Annotations occurr in
the Animal & Vegetable Kingdom;
as you may read and find in various
Authors, who have written of
such Curiosities, from the accurate,
and absolute Knowledge of
which, the true Philosophers,
and Masters of Nature had their
beginning, and Esteem.
Thus have I described, what I
my self have seen and done; and
have caused the same to be printed
for you, Candid Readers, out of
mere Liberality, gratis communicating
it, according to that of Seneca:
I desire in this to know
somewhat, that I may teach others.
Si cum hac Exceptione detur Sapientia,
ut illlam inclusam tencam, abjiciam,
&c. But if any man doubt
of the real truth of this matter, let
him only with a lively faith believe
in his Crucified Jesus, that
in Him, he (by the strict way of
Regeneration) may become a
New Creature; in the same let
him fix the whole Anchor, of his
Faith, and likewise shew his [Greek: philanthropia],
or Love of Mankind, unto
all his Neighbours, and especially
exercise the works of Mercy, and
Brotherly Love towards the needy
Members of the Christian Religion,
that at length, when the whole
Course of his Life is justly, and
holily finished, in that Fatal and
Mortal hour, he may hence,
through the Watery Ocean of this
Tempestuous and Rocky World,
arrive in safety at the most blessed
Port of Eternal Rest, and sing the
New Song with the Triumphing
Philosophers of the Heavenly
Jerusalem, of which he hopes to
take, who is,
Your most faithful and
assured Friend
John Frederick Helvetius,
Doctor and Practitioner of Medicine at the Hague.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note: Repeated word "perused" deleted.