Page 20 - Treatise on Salt

9 Beya 9 Gabricius
10 The volatile sulphur 10 The fixed sulphur
11 The vulture 11 The toad
12 The living 12 The dead
13 The water of life 13 The black, more black, than the black
14 The humid cold 14 The dry hot
15 The soul or spirit 15 The body
16 The dragon’s tail 16 The dragon devouring his tail
17 The heaven 17 The earth
18 The sweat 18 The ashes
19 The most sharp vinegar 19 The brass, or the sulphur
20 The white smoke 20 The black smoke
21 The black clouds 21 The bodies out of which those clouds
come

In the superior part, which is spiritual and volatile, resides the life of
the dead earth; and in the inferior part, which is terrestrial and fixed, is
contained the ferment which nourishes, and fixes the stone; these two
parts come from the same radix, and both the one and the other must
conjoin and unite together in the form of water.

Take then the earth, and calcine it in the dunghill, which is tepid, and
moist, till it becomes white, and appears greasy. This is that
incombustible sulphur, which by a greater digestion, may be made a red
sulphur; but it must be white before it becomes red: for it can not pass
from black to red, but through the white, which is the medium between
both: and when the white appears in the vessel, without doubt, the red
lies hid therein. Wherefore the matter must not be taken out, but must
only be further digested, till it at last becomes red.

Discourse translated from verse.

The gold of the wise, is no way the vulgar gold;
But it is a certain water clear and pure,
On which is born the spirit of the Lord;
And it is from thence that all beings receive life.
This is the reason why our gold is become entirely spiritual:
By the mean of the spirit, it passes through the alembic;
Its earth remains black,
Which however did not appear before;

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