The Hermetic Museum, Vol. II — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)

KOLTPASBATSEPISSQMINIS

The truth of this Art is maintained by many illustrious writers, of whom the following are the most distinguished representatives of their class: )

Paracelsus (Aev. AVafur. ix. fol. 358) has the following words: * The true sign by which the Tincture of the Physicists is known, is its power of transmuting all imperfect metals into silver (if it be white) or gold (if it be red), if but a small particle of it be injected into a mass of such metals liquefied in a crucible."

Again: * The invincible Star of the Metals vanquishes all things, and changes them into a nature similartoits own. This gold and silver are better than those found in mines for the preparation of arcane medicines from it."

Again: *I say that any Alchemist, who has the Star of
Gold, can change all metals into that precious substance."

Again: ' Our Tincture of Gold contains stars, is a substance of the greatest fixity, is unchangeable in multiplication, is a red powder (with almost a saffron tinge), liquid like resin, transparent like crystal, fragile like glass, is of a rubinate colour, and of great specific gravity."

.Again, in Paracelsus' book called * The Heaven of the Sages, and in his seventh book on the **Transmutation of Natural Things," he bears witness to the same fact: * Transmutation is a great natural mystery, which is bv no means—as fools suppose—contrary to the course of Nature, or the law of God. Without this Philosopher's Stone, the imperfect metals can be transmuted neither into gold nor silver."

Paracelsus, in his Manual concerning the Medicinal Philosopher's Stone, says: * Our Stone is the heavenly and superperfect Medicine, because it washes away all the impurities of metals."

Henry Khunrath, in his * Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom " (fol. 147), has the following words: * I have visited many lands, and had speech of many learned men. I have seen the Green Catholic Lion, and the Blood of the Lion, ze,the Gold of the Sages, with my own eyes, have touched it with my hands, tasted it with my tongue, smelt it with my nose. By its means I have cured many whose life was despaired of."

Again (fol. 202): *That which I describe is not a myth: you shall handle it with your hands, see it with your eyes,—that Azoth, or Catholic Mercury of the Sages, which, together with inward and outward fire,in sympathic harmony, through an unavoidable necessity, physico-magically united,is alone sufficient for the preparation of our Stone."

Again: * You shall see the Philosopher's Stone, our King and Lord of Lords, go forth from the chamber of its crystal tomb into

28o THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.

this world, with its glorified body, regenerate and transcendently perfect, a brilliant carbuncle, whose most subtle and fully purified parts, being harmoniously mixed, are bound inseparably into one, altogether smooth, translucid as crystal | compact and exceedingly weighty. It is easily fused in fire, as resin, and after the flight of artificial quicksilver, just as wax. Without smoke it enters and penetrates solid bodies as oilenters paper. It is soluble in any liquid, melting and commingling with the same, fragile as glass, in a powder saffron-coloured, but in a solid mass, red like the ruby. Its purple colour is the mark of perfect ' fixation and fixed perfection, for it remains fixed and incombustible, even when exposed to fire, corrosive waters, or burning sulphur, since it is, like the salamander, incapable of being consumed by fire."

Again : * When the White Tincture is added to metals as a ferment, it transmutes them into purest silver ; when the Red 'Tincture is mixed with pure gold, it is, within three days, multiplied by the quantity of the gold."

Helmontius (* On Life Eternal," page 590) has the following words :—' I have seen the Stone, and touched it with my own hands. . . . . Onme-fourth of agrain of this powder, wrapped up in paper, I have cast upon eight ounces of boiling quicksilver in a crucible, and immediately the whole mixture was congealed into a mass like yellow wax ; when the fusion was completed, the crucible contained eight ounces of purest gold (less eleven grains). So one grain of our powder had transmuted into purest gold 19,186 times its own weight of quicksilver,—and this process can be repeated indefinitely. The powder cleanses the metal from all impurity, and protects it from rust, decay, and fire, etc.

Again, the same Helmontius says, in his * Tree of Life" (page 630) :—*1 am compelled to believe that there is a Stone which produces gold and silver ; for I have several times, with my own hands, projected one grain of powder upon one thousand grains of boiling quicksilver, which was thereby, in the presence of a great multitude of spectators, immediately transformed into precious gold. He who first gave me some of this transmutatory powder, had of it at least as much as would have sufficed for the production of 200,000 pounds of gold. He gave me about

14 grain of the powder, with which I transmuted 934 ounces of quicksilver. Moreover, the most honourable and profoundly learned

Dr. Theodore Ketjes, an eminent physician resident at Amsterdam, gave me a medal on which were the following inscriptions:

N TOUR erafftlies