imbibing and drying; whereby the virtues of the Stone are infinitely augmentable. As my

design has been not to describe entirely the application of the three medicines, but only to

instruct you in the more important operations concerning the preparation of Mercury,

which the philosophers commonly pass over in silence, to hide the mysteries from the

profane which are only intended for the wise, I will tarry no longer on this point, and will

tell you nothing more of what relates to the Projection of the Medicine, because the

success you expect depends not thereon. I have not given you very full instructions

except on the Third Key, because it contains a long train of operations which, though

simple and natural, require a great understanding of the Laws of Nature, and of the

qualities of Our Matter, as well as a perfect knowledge of chemistry and of the different

degrees of heat which are fitting for these operations. I have conducted you by the

straight way without any winding; and if you have well minded the road which I have

pointed out to you, I am sure that you will go straight to the end without straying. Take

this in good part from me, in the design which I had of sparing you a thousand labours

and a thousand troubles, which I myself have undergone in this painful journeyfor want

of an assistance such as this is, which I give you from a sincere heart and a tender

affection for all the true sons of science. I should much bewail, if, like me, after having

known the true matter, you should spend fifteen years entirely in the work, in study and

in meditation, without being able to extract out of the Stone the precious juice which it

encloses in its bosom, for want of knowing the secret fire of the wise, which makes to run

out of this plant (dry and withered in appearance) a water which wets not the hands, and

which by a magical union of the dry water of the sea of the wise, is dissolved into a

viscous water -- into a mercurial liquor, which is the beginning, the foundation, and the

Key of our Art: Convert, separate, and purify the elements, as I have taught you, and you

will possess the true Mercury of the philosophers, which will give you the fixed Sulphur

and the Universal Medicine. But I give you notice, moreover, that even after you shall be

arrived at the knowledge of the Secret Fire of the Wise, yet still you shall not attain your

point at your first career. I have erred many years in the way which remains to be gone, to

arrive at the mysterious fountain where the King bathes himself, is made young again,

and retakes a new life exempt from all sorts of infirmities. Besides this you must know

how to purify, to heal, and to animate the royal bath; it is to lend you a hand in this secret

way that I have expatiated under the Third Key, where all those operations are described.

I wish with all my heart that the instructions which I have given you may enable you to

go directly to the End. But remember, ye sons of philosophy, that the knowledge of our

Magistery comes rather by the Inspiration of Heaven than from the Lights which we can

get by ourselves. This truth is acknowledged by all artists; it is for good reason that it is

not enough to work; pray daily, read good books, and meditate night and day on the

operations of Nature, and on what she may be able to do when she is assisted by the help

of our Art; and by these means you will succeed without doubt in your undertaking. This

is all I have now to say to you. I was not willing to make you such a long discourse as the

matter seemed to demand; neither have I told you anything but what is essential to our

Art; so that if you know the Stone which is the only matter of Our Stone, and if you have

the Understanding of Our Fire, which is both secret and natural, you have the Keys of the

Art, and you can calcine Our Stone; not by the common calcination which is made by the

violence of fire, but by a philosophic calcination which is purely natural. Yet observe this,

with the most enlightened philosophers, that there is this difference between the common

six keys of eudoxus