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and that the humidity would always remain barren if it were not retained and fixed by the
dryness of the earth.
17. So, in the Art, you can have no success if you do not in the first work purify the
Serpent, born of the Slime of the earth; it you do not whiten these foul and black faeces,
to separate from thence the white sulphur, which is the Sal Amoniac of the Wise, and
their Chaste Diana, who washes herself in the bath; and all this mystery is but the
extraction of the fixed salt of our compound, in which the whole energy of our Mercury
consists.
18. The water which ascends by distillation carries up withit a part of this fiery salt, so
that the affusion of the water on the body, reiterated many times, impregnates, fattens,
and fertilizes our Mercury, and makes it fit to be fixed, which is the end of the second
Work. 19. One cannot better explain this Truth than by Hermes, in these words:
When I saw that the water by degrees did become thicker and
harder I did rejoice, for I certainly knew that I should find what
I sought for.
It is not without reason that the philosophers give this viscous Liquor the name of Pontick
Water. Its exuberant ponticity is indeed the true character of its virtue, and the more you
shall rectify it, and the more you shall work upon it, the more virtue will it acquire. It has
been called the Water of Life, because it gives life to the metals; but it is properly called
the great Lunaria, because of its brightness wherewith it shines....
20. Since I speak only to you, ye true scholars of Hermes, I will reveal to you one secret
which you will not find entirely in the books of the philosophers. Some of them say, that
of the liquor they make two Mercuries -- the one White and the other Red; Flammel has
said more particularly, that one must make use of the citrine Mercury to make the
Imbibition of the Red; giving notice to the Sons of Art not to be deceived on this point, as
he himself had been, unless the Jew had informed him of the truth.
21. Others have taught that the White Mercury is the bath of the Moon, and that the Red
Mercury is the bath of the Sun. But there are none who have been willing to show
distinctly to the Sons of Science by what means they may get these two mercuries. If you
apprehend me well, you have the point already cleared up to you.
22. The Lunaria is the White Mercury, the most sharp Vinegar is the Red Mercury; but
the better to determine these two mercuries, feed them with flesh of their own species --
the blood of innocents whose throats are cut; that is to say, the spirits of the bodies are the
Bath where the Sun and Moon go to wash themselves.
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3. I have unfolded to you a great mystery, if you reflect well on it; the philosophers who
have spoken thereof have passed over this important point very slightly. Cosmopolite has
very wittily mentioned it by an ingenious allegory, speaking of the purification of the
Mercury: This will be done, says he, if you shall give our old man gold and silver to
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