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The gold calx can in any case soon be made volatile. Within two days I can volatilize it so much that it rises entirely
into the alembic; even flies away. One may well be surprised that such a fixed Body can be so far destroyed that it
can fly away without wings like Mercury, and yet can also be made fixed again with a little effort. I know how to
make a spirit that destroys gold so much in a few hours that it flies with the spirit out of the glass into the air, if the
glass is not tightly closed. Nobody knows where it goes, and it vanishes entirely, so that not one grain is left in the
glass.
When I mentioned this one day at a princely table, the Prince did not want to believe it and asked me to show it to
him in practice. When I did this in a short time - because I already had a supply of the spirit - he was quite surprised
and said that he had had many laboratory workers, but none had gone so far. Furthermore, he said that if he knew
how to make this spirit, he would not doubt the preparation of the Philosophers' Stone. But he was wrong, because
this spirit had not been the Universal Spirit, as the Philosophers want it to be, but had been made from other
minerals, and was corrosive. Therefore it could not and should not be an ingredient and medium for attaining this
high Work. Although it could not be used for this purpose - nor had I prepared it to this end - it was yet a wonder
that it could volatilize the gold so fast without further preparation. And if nothing was added to it, it did not let the
gold drop away. Even if one tried ten times to separate it through the Balneum, the gold always went with it over the
alembic, not as an oil or an extract but with its color, just the color of the spirit itself, only somewhat pale-yellow.
Aside from that, it was beautiful, bright and white like spring water. It is not necessary to describe here how to
prepare this spirit as it does not help this Work. It is also dangerous to operate with it because it kicks so much and
violently as no gunpowder does. It is better, however, to handle the tartarized arcanum, but one must have a good
amount of it, and I will here describe how I made it.
I took 1 lb. of salt of tartar, optim. rectified. Upon it I poured drop by drop the same amount of oil of vitriol. I let it
effervesce, then put it down till it had settled. I decanted the liquid and gently dried the residue. I dissolved the latter
in the phlegma of the vitriol, poured the pure off and filtered it. I distilled the liquid to half, then put the rest in a
cold place. Now beautiful clear and transparent crystals sprouted, which I took out with a wooden spoon, letting half
of the remaining water steam off further; set it back in the cellar, let it sprout, poured the liquid off, mixed the
crystals with the previous ones. When I had dried and weighed them, I had obtained 2 lbs. from these 4 lbs.
On these crystals I poured some good rectified spirit of wine - which the author calls the "vegetarian blood" - set it
to digest, as otherwise they do not easily dissolve, till they were completely dissolved. Then I distilled them
according to the Art. When I had driven over 2 lbs. of the spirit, I changed the receiver, added another and increased
the fire somewhat. Now a beautiful fiery spirit went over. I removed the Death's Head, enclosed it in a retort and
reverberated it well. I also extracted its salt with distilled rainwater, added it to the distilled spirit, let it circulate for
8 days, and drove it over again. Thus I obtained a wonderful menstruum with which one can not only extract the
Soul of the gold but also that of all metals, minerals and precious stones. It dissolves and extracts exceedingly well,
and if it does not take everything over the alembic the first time, it must be cohobated and will work very well.
When I tried this process with silver, I could not get everything over the alembic the first time but had to pour it
back several times into the left-over. Then it went over, leaving only a few feces in the retort, which were quite
black and light. I am of opinion that one has to proceed in the same way with gold, as its Body is even more fixed
and compact than the Body of silver, and the cohobations achieve much good, which could otherwise not be done.
With this menstruum I have dissolved the crocus Martis, the crocus (saffron color) of iron and extracted its tincture,
which turned out more beautiful than any dissolution of the Sun. I took it over the alembic in the same way. And
when I separated the menstruum from it by a vapor bath, a beautiful oil was left, pleasant and sweet, as if it had
come from the best gold. It also tinged silver into shining gold, though it was not stable. But when the silver was
immediately held in the fire, it did not fly away like that which comes from antimony. It was only washed away
when it was strongly rubbed. This work could well make you hope that you could make something out of iron with
which you could earn your bread. I leave it to anyone who would like to try it. I am afraid, however, that it will
hardly be possible without a good fermentation, because Basil says that Mars also attains glory by his
quarrelsomness, but that he must take care not to be pushed down again and suffer shame and derision, as the old
Saturn (lead) is his archenemy: where he can give him a secret knock, he will not hesitate to do so, because the old
folks are generally no friends of warriors.
With this oil one can also turn Mercury into a beautiful precipitate, which can be used to great advantage in many
sicknesses. It makes it so fixed and fireproof that it can pass a rather stiff test of Vulcan (fire). I really think that if it
is conjoined with the oil of gold, it can become something useful, but I do not wish to cause anyone to squander
money on it. In this passage I only reveal my thoughts in case someone wanted to do something for Mars, although
Mars seldom brings riches. Instead, he robs and takes wherever he can, not asking if it belongs to God or the poor
fellowman, as a very honest man learned after 24 years. I could also tell a story of what war has cost me. May God
one day end such abominable destruction of the country and restore noble peace to us, for then many fine arts will
yet arise, honoring God and serving the poor fellowman. Well then, everything comes from God, good fortune and
misfortune, and we must say with Job: Si bona suscepimus a Domino, cur non mala sustineamus.
We will also say something about the virtues of this gold. The author (Poppius), however, does not mention them,
doubtlessly because it does precisely what has been said of the other preparations, to which I will also refer to the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]