Page 32 - Book of Crates

gypsum]. All this having been melted together gave birth to the body of
the magnesia. It is necessary then to transform the black lead, then the
ten colours appear. However, by all these names that we gave, we
wanted to understand only the molybdochalque, that is the tincting
agent of all bodies entering the combination.

“However, any combination is formed of two elements: one humid,
the other dry. If we submit it to coction, they merge themselves
together; then we call it the excellent thing; it has many names. When
the product is red, it is called flower of gold and ferment of gold, or
minium, red sulphur, red arsenic. But, for us, we continued to call it
molybdochalque, ingot and metallic strips. I have just explained to you
the names, before and after cooking, and I gave you all distinctions that
it was possible for me to make known to you.

“Now, it is appropriate that I speak to you about the various kinds
of fire, of the numbers of the days that it must last, of the variety of
fires, according to the intensity which one wants to obtain with all the
degrees. Maybe that while knowing this topic well, and while making a
special survey, we will manage to defeat the misery which cannot be
healed otherwise than by this august work. There is a weak fire, a fire
under the ash, the embers, the light flame, the average flame and the
lively flame. Experience, only, can make it possible to obtain the
various sorts that take place between these categories. So as for the
number of days that the molybdochalque, the processing of which is
our essential aim, occurs in one day, or in a fraction of a day. Farther,
I will tell you, in due course and place, the number of days necessary
to complete the poison and the elixir.

“Know, in a positive way, that if one places pure gold in the
compound, the tincture takes a pure red colour; if one puts white gold
there, the tincture is also of a vivid white. Because of this one finds in
the treasures of the philosophers expressions of superior gold and
brilliant gold, according to the gold that they introduced into their
compound. When all these natures mixed and they became the
molybdochalque, the primitive natures confound themselves in an
unique nature and they formed a unique species. When matter is in this
state, we pour it into a glass vessel, in order to see how the compound

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