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and not know how to distinguish it by the characters whereby it is described, ought to
make a stand here, and pray to God to make it clear to him; for the knowledge of this
great Secret is rather a gift of Heaven, than a Light acquired by the natural force of
reasoning; let him, nevertheless, read the writings of the philosophers; let him meditate;
and, above all, let him pray: there is no difficulty which may not in the end be made clear
by Work, Meditation, and Prayer.
3. Without the sublimation of the Stone, the conversion of the Elements and the
extraction of the Principles is impossible; and this conversion, which makes Water of
Earth, Air of Water, and Fire of Air, is the only way whereby our Mercury can be
prepared.
4. Apply yourself then to know this Secret Fire, which dissolves the Stone naturally and
without violence, and makes it dissolve into Water in the great sea of the Wise, by the
distillation which is made by the rays of the Sun and Moon.
5. It is in this manner that the Stone, which, according to Hermes, is the vine of the Wise,
becomes their Wine, which, by the operations of Art, produces their rectified Water of
Life, and their most sharp Vinegar. The Elements of the Stone cannot be dissolved but by
this Nature wholly Divine; nor can a perfect dissolution be made of it, but after a
proportioned digestion and putrefaction, at which the operation of the Second Key of the
First Work is ended.
THE THIRD KEY
1. The Third Key comprehends of itself alone a longer train of operations than all the rest
together. The philosophers have spoken very little of it, seeing the Perfection of our
Mercury depends thereon; the sincerest even, as Artefius, Trevisan, Flammel, have
passed in silence the Preparation of our Mercury, and there is hardly one found who has
not feigned, instead of showing the longest and the most important of the operations of
our Practice. With a design to lend you a hand in this part of the way, which you have to
go, and where for want of Light it is impossible to know the true road, I will enlarge
myself more than others have done on this Third Key; or at least I will follow in an order,
that which they have treated so confusedly, that without the inspiration of Heaven, or
without the help of a faithful friend, one remains undoubtedly in this labyrinth, without
being able to find a happy deliverance from thence.
2. I am sure, that you who are the true Sons of Science will receive a very great
satisfaction in the explaining of these hidden Mysteries, which regard the separation and
the purification of the Principles of our Mercury, which is made by a perfect dissolution
and glorification of the body, whence it had its nativity, and by the intimate union of the
soul with its body, of whom the Spirit is the only tie which works this conjunction.
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