Page 38 - Book of Crates

“Why did Democritus the Wise complain about some mixture, by
saying: ‘Was nothing more difficult for us than the mixture of the
natures and their joining to combine them?’ ”

“Democritus was right. Thus you should know that the whole work
can only take place in the case that you know each thing in particular; it
is only then that you know the method whereby it is necessary to
proceed to the mixture, according to the weights which are appropriate
to ensure the perfect execution of it. It is necessary therefore that the
philosopher knows everything before putting his hand to the work, if
the thing is, or is not, of what thing it is made and how it is.”

“Why have the philosophers said: ‘What should we do so that the
compound is fireproof?’ However all order us to burn it, so that it
becomes like an ash.”

“The philosophers were right in what they said and ordered,
because the burnt elixir, transformed into ashes and mixed with the
liquid becomes similar to honey. We cook it then, until it dries up; then
we put back the liquid there, and we repeat these operations of mixing
and cooking several times, until the calcination is complete and there
does not remain any more in the compound anything that has been
burnt; it is finally necessary that the compound is transformed into
ashes, so that we are not able to burn them any more. There is thus
some wood which the fire does not stop consuming, until it is reduced
into ashes; but these ashes, once withdrawn from the fire, cannot any
more be burned. We can again compare the compound to a fever that
seizes the man and man and does not leave him any more, before all the
superfluities of his body were burnt up, superfluities which are exactly
the causes of this fever. When all these superfluities have been
consumed, the fever leaves the man. The philosophers therefore
ordered to burn the compound, until one cannot burn it any more.”

“Why have the philosophers said: ‘Amalgamate the pieces of the
gold ferment with mercury, until production of a homogeneous
whole’?”

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