Page 37 - Treatise on Salt

duration, and as yet too incapable of understanding judgement and the
laws, etc.”

By the same means thou mayst also be acceptable to God, provided
thou makest the being so, thy chief study; and afterwards it will be lawful
for thee, and even become thee, to think of the means of living
handsomely during this life, and not only not be a burden to thy
neighbour, but even be able to relieve the poor as occasion shall offer.
This is what the art of the philosophers easily imparts to all those to
whom God permits this science, as one of his most peculiar graces to be
known: but he does not use to do it, unless he be prompted thereto by
fervent prayers, and by the holy life of him who desires so signal a
favour, and he does not grant it immediately even to any person
whatever, but always by mediate dispositions, to wit, by instructions, and
the labour of the hands, to which he gives a thorough blessin g, if he be
invoked thereto with a sincere heart; whereas, when recourse is not duly
had to him by prayer, he stops the effect thereof, either by interposing
obstacles to things already begun, or else by permitting them to conclude
with an evil event.

However, to acquire this science, it is requisite to study, read and
meditate, that thou may’st be able to know the process of nature, which
art must necessarily follow. The study and lecture consists in those good
and true authors, who have in effect experienced the truth of this science,
and have communicated it to posterity, and to whom credit may be given
with certainty in their art; for they were men of conscience, and far from
telling any lies, although for many reasons they have written obscurely.
As for my part, thou must compare what they have wrapped up in
obscurity, with the operations of nature, and to take notice what seed she
makes use of to produce and generate each thing: as for instance, this or
that tree is not made of all sorts of things; but only of a seed, or root
which is of its own kind. It is just so in the art of the philosophers, which
has in like manner a certain and assured determination; for it tinges
nothing into gold or silver, but the mercurial metallic genus, which it
condenses into a malleable mass, which endure the hammer, persisting in
the fire, and which is tinctured with a most perfect colour; and in
communicating its tincture, cleanses and separates from the metal
whatever is not of its own nature: it therefore follows, that the tincture is
likewise of the mercurial metallic genus, designed for the perfection of
gold, and that its origin, root, and seminal virtue, must be drawn from the

33