PHILALETHES.PDF

Three Tracts

Medicine

Eirenaeus Philalethes

Tres tractatus de metallorum transmutatione.

Produced by

R.A.M.S.

Restorers of Alchemical Manuscripts

Amsterdam, 1668.

Metamorphosis of Metals

CHAPTER I

Of the Claims of our Art, its Students, and its Method

All men who devote their lives to the study of any art, or

to any kind of occupation, have before their eyes, as the

aim of their efforts, perfection in the thing which they

pursue. But only few attain to the goal of their wishes:

there are many architects, but few masters of the art of

architecture; many students of medicine, but few men like

Hippocrates or Galen; many mathematicians, but few

proficients like Archimedes; many poets, but few worthy to

rank with Homer. Yet, even men who have nothing more than a

respectable knowledge of their calling, are capable of

being useful to society.

Among those who devote themselves to the transmutation of

metals, however, there can be no such thing as mediocrity

of attainment. A man who studies this Art, must have either

everything or nothing. An Alchemist who knows only half his

craft, reaps nothing but disappointment and waste of time

and money; moreover, he lays himself open to the mockery of

those who despise our Art. Those, indeed, who succeed in

reaching the goal of the Magistery, have not only infinite

riches, but the means of continued life and health. Hence

it is the most popular of all human pursuits. Anyone who

has read a few "Receipts" claims the title of a Sage, and

conceives the most extravagant hopes; and, in order to give

themselves the appearance of very wise men indeed, such

persons immediately set themselves to construct furnaces,

fill their laboratories with stills and alembics, and

approach the work with a wonderful appearance of

profundity. They adopt an obscure jargon, speak of the

first matter of the metals, and discuss with a learned air

the rotation of the elements, and the marriage of Gabritius

with Beya. In the meantime, however, they do not succeed in

bringing about any metamorphosis of the metals, except that

of their gold and silver into copper and bronze.

When captious despisers of our Art see this, they draw from

such constant failures the conclusion that our Art is a

combination of fiction and imposture; whilst those who have

ruined themselves by their folly confirm this suspicion by

preying on the credulity of others, pretending to have

gained some skill by the loss of their money. In this way

the path of the beginner is beset with difficulties and

pestilent delusions of every kind; and, through the fault

of these swindlers, who give themselves such wonderful airs

of profundity and learning, our Art itself has fallen into

utter disrepute, though these persons, of course, know

nothing whatever about it. The beginner finds it extremely

difficult to distinguish between the false and the true in

this vast Labyrinth of Alchemy. Bernard of Trevisa warns

him to eschew like the plague these persons who hold out so

many vain and empty promises; while I have written this

Treatise for the guidance of the blind, and the instruction

of the erring. I wish, in the first place, to clear our Art

from the slanders which have been cast upon it, then to

describe the qualifications of its students and its methods

of procedure. After these prefatory explanations, I will

gird myself to a description of the Art itself.

Before I say anything else, I would record my most earnest

protest against that method of reasoning by which the

deceptions of certain wretched sophists are laid to the

charge of this science. The wickedness of some of its lying

professors can prove nothing either for or against its

genuineness. Such a position could be made good only by

arguments based on natural relations; but such arguments it

is impossible to find. The light of Nature is too bright to

be darkened by these obscurists. I hope my Book will shew

that the Transmutation of Metals, from an imperfect to a

perfect state, is a real and true achievement, and that by

the co-operation of Nature and Art. The only thing that

distinguishes one metal from another, is its degree of

maturity, which is, of course, greatest in the most

precious metals; the difference between gold and lead is

not one of substance, but of digestion; in the baser metal

the coction has not been such as to purge out its metallic

impurities. If by any means this superfluous impure matter

could be organically removed from the baser metals, they

would become gold and silver. So miners tell us that lead

has in many cases developed into silver in the bowels of

the earth; and we contend that the same effect is produced

in a much shorter time by means of our Art. It is a fact

that the Mercury which is generated in the bowels of the

earth, is the common substance of all metals -- since this

Mercury will enter into combination with every kind of

metal -- which could not be the case if it were not

naturally akin to them all. Mercury is a water that will

mix with nothing that is not of the same nature. By Art,

the handmaid of Nature, Mercury can be so successively

concocted with all metals, that one and the same under the

same colour and flux, may subalternately shew and express

the true temperature and properties of them all. Moreover,

all metals are capable of being resolved into running

Mercury -- and surely this could not be if it were not

their common substance. Again, the Mercury of lead may

become that of iron, the Mercury of iron that of copper;

while the Mercury of tin may even be transmuted into that

of silver and gold -- a fact which triumphantly

demonstrates the substantial affinity of all the metals.

From antimony, too, a good Mercury is obtained, which some

of our Artists are able to change into metallic mercury. It

is also a well-established fact that the Mercury gained

from any metallic or mineral body possesses the properties

of assimilating common Mercury to its own nature; thus

common Mercury may become that of all metals in turn. Do

not these arguments clearly shew that there is one Mercury,

and that in the various metals it is only differentiated

according to their different degrees of digestion or

purity? I do not see how these arguments can be answered.

It is possible indeed that some dull person may allege in

refutation of our reasoning his inability to accomplish

those chemical transformations on which it is based; but

such operators would be vindicating too great an honour for

their ignorance if they claimed to advance it as an

argument against the truth of our Art. They must not make

their own little understandings the standard or measure of

the possibilities of Nature. At any rate, my word is as

good as theirs (and better, since they can never prove a

negative), and I do most positively and solemnly assert

that I have with my own hands performed every one of the

experiments which I have described; and I know many others

whose experience has shewn these things to be true. How can

our opponents hope to prevail against eye-witnesses by bare

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