Page 10 - Treatise on Salt

inasmuch as the primitive chaos of the world was nothing else than a
crass and saline obscurity, or cloud of the abyss, which was concentred
and created out of invisible things by the word of God, and was brought
forth by the force and power of his voice, as a being which was to serve
for a first matter, and give life to everything, and which is actually
existing. It is neither dry, nor moist, nor thick, nor thin, nor luminous,
nor obscure, nor hot, nor cold, nor hard, nor soft; but is only a blended
chaos, out of which afterwards all things were produced and separated.
But in this place we shall say no more on that head, and shall only treat
of our salt, which is the third principle of minerals, and is moreover the
beginning of our philosophical work.

But if the reader desires to reap any benefit from this discourse of
mine, and comprehend my thought, he must first of all read with great
attention the writings of the other true philosophers, and chiefly those of
Sandivogius, of whom we have made mention above, that by the perusal
of them, he may know fundamentally the generation, and the first
principles of metals, which proceed all from the same root. For he who
knows exactly the generation of metals, is not ignorant also of their
melioration and transmutation: and after he has by that mean got the
knowledge of our fountain of salt, he shall here find the remaining
instructions that are necessary for him, to the end, that having addressed
himself to the Almighty with an ardent devotion, he may through his
holy grace and blessing, acquire that precious salt, white as the very
snow; that he may draw up the living water of Paradise; and may
therewith prepare the philosophical tincture, which is the greatest
treasure, and most noble gift that God has ever bestowed in this life on
the wise philosophers.

Discourse translated from verse.

Pray to God to give you wisdom, clemency, and grace.
By the means of which this art may be acquired.
Do not apply your mind to anything else, than to this hylech of the
philosophers.
In the fountain of the salt of our sun and moon,
You’ll there find the treasure of the son of the sun.

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