Page 17 - Compound of Compounds

bound inside the metals, unable to perfect, no longer fixed. They lack two substances,
one miscible to the metals in fusion, the other fixed that may coagulate and fix. So
Rhases stated: “There are four substances that change in time; each of them is
composed of four elements and assumes the name of the dominant element. Their
marvellous essence has fixed in a body and with the latter we may nourish the other
bodies. This essence is composed of water and air, combined in such manner as to be
liquefied by heat. That is a wonderful secret. The minerals employed in alchemy must,
to be of any help, act upon the melted bodies. The stones that we use are four in
number, two tinge in white, the two others in red. Thus the white, the red, Sulphur,
Arsenic and Saturn possess the very same body. And in this one body, what occult
matters! Initially it is inoperative on the perfect metals.”

In the imperfect bodies, there is an acid, bitter and sour water, necessary to our
art. For it dissolves and mortifies the bodies, then it revivifies and recomposes them.
Rhases stated in his third letter: “Those who seek our Entelechy, wonder from where
comes the elementary aqueous bitterness. We will answer them: of the impurity of the
metals. For the water contained in gold and silver is mild, it dissolves not; on the
contrary it coagulates and fortifies, because it contains no acidity or impurity like the
imperfect metals.”

For this reason Geber stated: “We calcine and dissolve gold and silver to no avail,
for our Vinegar must be drawn from four imperfect bodies; it is this mortifying and
dissolving spirit that mixes the tinctures of all the bodies that we employ in our work.
We need but this water; the other spirits are of no import.”

Geber is right: we have no use for a tincture that fire would alter; quite the
contrary, it is necessary for the fire to give it excellence and strength so that it may
alloy with the melted metals. It must fortify and fix, so that in spite of fusion it remain
in intimate bond with the metal.

I would like to add that from the four imperfect bodies, all may be extracted. The
abovementioned method of preparing Sulphur, Arsenic and Mercury applies here.

In fact, during this preparation we heat the spirit of Sulphur and of Arsenic with
acid waters or oil, in order to extract the igneous essence, the oil, the unctuosity, by
removing what is superfluous in them. There remains the igneous force and the oil, the
only useful things; but they are mixed with the acid water that served us to purify.
Moreover, these cannot be separated, but at least we got rid of the useless. We must

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