Page 43 - Treatise on Salt

unadvisedly this maxim, that to obtain the living water of sal nitre, it was
necessary to dig into a pit deeply, up to the very knees, which delirious
whim he was not contented barely to pursue in his labour, but he made it
public by a discourse which he caused to have printed, in which he
maintained that that was the true meaning of all the philosophers. He so
obstinately adhered to this vain and imaginary opinion, that he spent in
the pursuance thereof all he was worth, so that he found himself reduced
to great poverty, and oppressed with grief and sorrow, deploring the
irreparable loss of his money, time and labour. This damage was
attended with vexatious cares, affliction, and restless watchings, which
increasing from day to day, he at last resolved to return to the place
where he had been before to dig deep into the earth which he had
believed was the philosophical earth, and there he continued to disgorge
his reproaches, and imprecations, till at last sleep stole upon him, of
which he had been deprived for some days by so much anxiety and
sadness; while he was thus plunged in this profound sleep, there
appeared to him in dream, a great company of men, all irradiated with
light, one of which approached him and reprimanded him after this
manner: friend, why dost thou vomit up so many injuries, maledictions,
and execrations against the philosophers who repose in God? The
alchemist in a surprise answered trembling: my lord, I have read their
books in part, where I perceived that there was no encomiums to be
imagined which they do not give to their stone, which they extol to the
very heavens; this stirred up in me an ardent desire to set my hand to the
work, and I have in all things operated according to their writings and
precepts, that I might also participate of their stone: but I too late find,
that their sayings have deceived me, since thereby I have lost all I was
worth.

Vision. You injure them, and accuse them unjustly of imposture, for all
those you behold, here are happy persons; they never writ any lie; on the
contrary, they have left us nothing but the pure truth, though wrapped up
in hidden and occult terms; to the end, that such great mysteries might
not be known by the unworthy, for otherwise great evils would arise, and
disorders in the world; you ought to interpret their writings not according
to the letter, but according to the operation, and possibility of nature; you
ought not to have undertook the manual operations, till you had first laid
a solid foundation by your fervent prayers to God, by an assiduous
lecture, and by an indefatigable study; and you ought to observe in what
the philosophers all agree; to wit, in one only thing, which is no other

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