The Signature of All Things — trans. John Ellistone (1651)
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The translator’s English as printed (John Ellistone). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
27. Observe this, ye wise Men! It is no Fiction or Fallacy; let the Artist but under-stand us right; he must bring the Jewel shut up in Saturn into the Mother of Generation, viz. into Sulphur, and take the Faber, and divide all Forms, and separate the Variety of Hungers, which the Faber himself does, when the Artist brings the Work into the first Mother, viz. into Sulphur: But he must first baptize the froward Child with the philosophical Baptism, lest he makes a Bastard of Sol; and then let him lead him into the Desart, and try whether Mercury will eat Manna in the Desart after the Baptism; or whether he will make Bread of Stones; or whether he will aspire aloft as an haughty Spirit, and precipitate himself from the Temple; or whether he will worship Saturn, in whom the Devil sits hidden: This the Artist must observe; whether Mercury the wicked poisonful Child receives the Baptism; whether he can feed of God's Bread or no.
28. If he now does eat, and stands out in the Temptation, then will the Angels appear to him after forty Days, and then let him go out of the Desart, and eat his own Food; and so the Artist is ready and fit for his Work, if not, then let him by all Means leave it, and as yet account himself unworthy of it.
29. He must have the Understanding of the Generation of Nature, else all his Labour and Pains are to no Purpose, except the Grace of the Most High has bestowed upon him some Particular, that so he is able to tincture Venus and Mars, which is the shortest [and most ready Way,] if God shews him such an Herb wherein the Tincture lies.
30. The Lunar Body of Metals lies in the Seething of the Earth, in Sulphur and Mercury covered internally with the Coat of Venus, and cloathed externally with the Cloak of Saturn, as we see plainly, and is a Degree more external than the Solar Body: Next after Luna, Jupiter's, Body is also a Degree more external; but Venus is a sly Bird, she has also the inward Solar Body; me takes the Coat of Mars upon her, and hides herself in Saturn's Cabinet; but she is manifest, and not hidden.
31. Next Venus Mars is likewise a Degree more external, and nearer to Earthliness; and next Mars Mercury's Body is a particular of all the rest; on one Part most nigh to the earthly Corporality, and on the other Part nearest the heavenly; and next Mercury Luna is on the earthly Part wholly earthly, and on the heavenly Part wholly heavenly; it carries an earthly and heavenly Face towards all Things; to the Evil it is Evil, and to the Good it is Good; to a pleasant Creature it gives its best in the Taste, and to a bad Creature it gives the Curse of the corrupted Earth.
32. Now in all this, as the Property of each Thing is internally, so it has externally its Signature, both in Animals and Vegetables; and this you shall see in an Herb, so likewise in Trees and Beasts, and in Men also.
33. If the Saturnine Property be predominant, and chief in a Thing, then it is of a black greyish Colour, hard and spare, sharp, sour, or Salt in Taste; it gets a long lean Body, grey in the Eyes, of a dark blue of a very slender Body, but of a hard Touch, though the Property of Saturn is very seldom alone Master in a Thing; for he soon awakens Mars with his hard Impression, who makes his Property bending and crooked, full of Knots, and hinders the Body from growing high, but is full of Branches and rugged, as is to be seen in Oak-Shrubs, and the like Trees.
34. But if Venus be next to Saturn in any Place in the Sude or Seething of the Earth, then the Sude in the Sulphur of Saturn causes a tall strong Body, for it gives its Sweetness into Saturn's Impression, whereby Saturn becomes strong and lusty, and if Venus be not hindered by Mars, it grows a great, tall, slender Tree, Herb, Beast, or Man, or whatever it be.
35. But if Jupiter be next to him in the Property of Venus, so that Jupiter is stronger in Saturn than Venus, and Mars under Venus, then it falls out to be a very excellent fair Body, full of Virtue and Power, also of a good Taste; its Eyes are blue, and somewhat whitish, of a meek Property, but very potent: If it falls out, that Mercury is between Venus and Jupiter, and Mars undermost, then is this Property in Saturn graduated in the highest Degree with all Power and Virtue, in Words and Works, with great Understanding.